1-2. “Judah’s sin is engravedwith a steel chisel,A steel chisel with a diamond point—engraved on their granite hearts,engraved on the stone corners of their altars.The evidence against them is plain to see:sex-and-religion altars and sacred sex shrinesAnywhere there’s a grove of trees,anywhere there’s an available hill.
3-4. “I’ll use your mountains as roadside standsfor giving away everything you have.All your ‘things’ will serve as reparationsfor your sins all over the country.You’ll lose your gift of land,The inheritance I gave you.I’ll make you slaves of your enemiesin a far-off and strange land.My anger is hot and blazing and fierce,and no one will put it out.”
5-6. God’s Message:“Cursed is the strong onewho depends on mere humans,Who thinks he can make it on muscle aloneand sets God aside as dead weight.He’s like a tumbleweed on the prairie,out of touch with the good earth.He lives rootless and aimlessin a land where nothing grows.
7-8. “But blessed is the man who trusts me, God,the woman who sticks with God.They’re like trees replanted in Eden,putting down roots near the rivers—Never a worry through the hottest of summers,never dropping a leaf,Serene and calm through droughts,bearing fresh fruit every season.
9-10. “The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful,a puzzle that no one can figure out.But I, God, search the heartand examine the mind.I get to the heart of the human.I get to the root of things.I treat them as they really are,not as they pretend to be.”
11. Like a cowbird that cheats by laying its eggsin another bird’s nestIs the person who gets rich by cheating.When the eggs hatch, the deceit is exposed.What a fool he’ll look like then!