2. Even their children go to worshipat their pagan altars and Asherah poles,beneath every green treeand on every high hill.
3. So I will hand over my holy mountain—along with all your wealth and treasuresand your pagan shrines—as plunder to your enemies,for sin runs rampant in your land.
4. The wonderful possession I have reserved for youwill slip from your hands.I will tell your enemies to take youas captives to a foreign land.For my anger blazes like a firethat will burn forever.”
5. This is what the lord says:“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,who rely on human strengthand turn their hearts away from the lord.
6. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert,with no hope for the future.They will live in the barren wilderness,in an uninhabited salty land.
7. “But blessed are those who trust in the lordand have made the lord their hope and confidence.
8. They are like trees planted along a riverbank,with roots that reach deep into the water.Such trees are not bothered by the heator worried by long months of drought.Their leaves stay green,and they never stop producing fruit.
9. “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,and desperately wicked.Who really knows how bad it is?
10. But I, the lord, search all heartsand examine secret motives.I give all people their due rewards,according to what their actions deserve.”
11. Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid,so are those who get their wealth by unjust means.At midlife they will lose their riches;in the end, they will become poor old fools.
12. But we worship at your throne—eternal, high, and glorious!
13. O lord, the hope of Israel,all who turn away from you will be disgraced.They will be buried in the dust of the earth,for they have abandoned the lord, the fountain of living water.
14. O lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed;if you save me, I will be truly saved.My praises are for you alone!
15. People scoff at me and say,“What is this ‘message from the lord’ you talk about?Why don’t your predictions come true?”