Dual Panel1The sin of Judah is recorded with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point on the tablet of their hearts, on the horns of their altars
2to witness against them. Their altars and their sacred poles stand by every spreading tree, on the heights
3and the hills in the mountain country. I shall hand over your wealth as spoil, and all your treasure for no payment, because of sin throughout your borders.
4You will lose possession of the holding which I gave you. I shall make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know; for the fire of my anger is kindled by you and it will burn for ever.
5These are the words of the LORD: A curse on anyone who trusts in mortals and leans for support on human kind, while his heart is far from the LORD!
6He will be like a juniper in the steppeland; when good comes he is unaware of it. He will live among the rocks in the wilderness, in a salt, uninhabited land.
7Blessed is anyone who trusts in the LORD, and rests his confidence on him.
8He will be like a tree planted by the waterside, that sends out its roots along a stream. When the heat comes it has nothing to fear; its foliage stays green. Without care in a year of drought, it does not fail to bear fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above any other thing, desperately sick; who can fathom it?
10I, the LORD, search the mind and test the heart, requiting each one for his conduct and as his deeds deserve.
11Like a partridge sitting on a clutch of eggs which it has not laid, so is he who amasses wealth unjustly. Before his days are half done it will leave him, and he will be a fool at the last.
12A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the site of our sanctuary;
13LORD, on whom Israel's hope is fixed, all who reject you will be put to shame; those who forsake you will be inscribed in the dust, for they have rejected the source of living water, the LORD.
14Heal me, LORD, and I shall be healed, save me and I shall be saved; for you are my praise.
15They say to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come, if it can!”
16It is not the prospect of disaster that makes me press after you, and I did not desire this day of despair. You know all that has passed my lips; you are fully aware of it.
17Do not become a terror to me; you are my refuge on an evil day.
18May my persecutors be foiled, not I; may they, not I, be terrified. Bring on them an evil day; destroy them, destroy them utterly.
19These were the words of the LORD to me: Go and stand at the Benjamin Gate, through which the kings of Judah pass in and out, and stand also at all the gates of Jerusalem.
20Say: Hear the words of the LORD, you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah, and all you citizens of Jerusalem who come in through these gates.
21These are the words of the LORD: Do not put your lives at risk by carrying any load on the sabbath day or bringing it through the gates of Jerusalem.
22You are not to bring any load out of your houses or do any work on the sabbath, but you are to keep the sabbath day holy as I commanded your forefathers.
23They, however, did not obey or pay attention, but stubbornly refused to hear or receive instruction.
24Now if you will obey me, says the LORD, and refrain from bringing any load through the gates of this city on the sabbath, and keep that day holy by doing no work on it,
25then kings will come through the gates of this city, kings who will sit on David's throne. They will come riding in chariots or on horseback, escorted by their officers, by the people of Judah, and by the citizens of Jerusalem; and this city will be inhabited for ever.
26People will come from the towns of Judah, the country round Jerusalem, the territory of Benjamin, the Shephelah, the hill-country, and the Negeb, bringing whole-offerings, sacrifices, grain-offerings, and frankincense, bringing also thank-offerings to the house of the LORD.
27But if you do not obey me by keeping the sabbath day holy and by carrying no load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath, then I shall set fire to the gates; it will consume the palaces of Jerusalem and will not be put out.