Behukkotai

This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh

Jeremiah 16:19 – 17:14 

¹⁹ O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
My refuge in a day of trouble,
To You nations shall come
From the ends of the earth and say:
Our fathers inherited utter delusions,
Things that are futile and worthless.
²⁰ Can a man make gods for himself?
No-gods are they!
²¹ Assuredly, I will teach them,
Once and for all I will teach them
My power and My might.
And they shall learn that My name is Lord.

Chapter 17

¹ The guilt of Judah is inscribed
With a stylus of iron,
Engraved with an adamant point
On the tablet of their hearts,
And on the horns of their altars,
² While their children remember
Their altars and sacred posts,
By verdant trees,
Upon lofty hills.
³ Because of the sin of your shrines
Throughout your borders,
I will make your rampart a heap in the field,
And all your treasures a spoil.
⁴ You will forfeit, by your own act,
The inheritance I have given you;
I will make you a slave to your enemies
In a land you have never known.
For you have kindled the flame of My wrath
Which shall burn for all time.

⁵ Thus said the Lord:
Cursed is he who trusts in man,
Who makes mere flesh his strength,
And turns his thoughts from the Lord.
⁶ He shall be like a bush in the desert,
Which does not sense the coming of good:
It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness,
In a barren land without inhabitant.
⁷ Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord,
Whose trust is the Lord alone.
⁸ He shall be like a tree planted by waters,
Sending forth its roots by a stream:
It does not sense the coming of heat,
Its leaves are ever fresh;
It has no care in a year of drought,
It does not cease to yield fruit.

⁹ Most devious is the heart;
It is perverse — who can fathom it?
¹⁰ I the Lord probe the heart,
Search the mind — 
To repay every man according to his ways,
With the proper fruit of his deeds.

¹¹ Like a partridge hatching what she did not lay,
So is one who amasses wealth by unjust means;
In the middle of his life it will leave him,
And in the end he will be proved a fool.

¹² O Throne of Glory exalted from of old,
Our Sacred Shrine!
¹³ O Hope of Israel! O Lord!
All who forsake You shall be put to shame,
Those in the land who turn from You
Shall be doomed men,
For they have forsaken the Lord,
The Fount of living waters.

¹⁴ Heal me, O Lord, and let me be healed;
Save me, and let me be saved;
For You are my glory.

Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
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