9. “Who can understand the human heart?There is nothing else so deceitful;it is too sick to be healed.
10. I, the Lord, search human mindsand test human hearts.I treat each one according to the way he lives,according to what he does.”
11. The person who gets money dishonestlyis like a bird that hatches eggs it didn't lay.In the prime of life he will lose his riches,and in the end he is nothing but a fool.
12. Our Temple is like a glorious throne,standing on a high mountain from the beginning.
13. Lord, you are Israel's hope;all who abandon you will be put to shame.They will disappear like names written in the dust,because they have abandoned you, the Lord,the spring of fresh water.
14. Lord, heal me and I will be completely well; rescue me and I will be perfectly safe. You are the one I praise!
15. The people say to me, “Where are those threats the Lord made against us? Let him carry them out now!”
16. But, Lord, I never urged you to bring disaster on them; I did not wish a time of trouble for them. Lord, you know this; you know what I have said.
17. Do not be a terror to me; you are my place of safety when trouble comes.
18. Bring disgrace on those who persecute me, but spare me, Lord. Fill them with terror, but do not terrify me. Bring disaster on them and break them to pieces.
19. The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, go and announce my message at the People's Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave the city; then go to all the other gates of Jerusalem.