Jeremiah 17

1 [Yahweh said, “It is as though a list of] the sins [committed by the people of] Judah is engraved with an iron chisel, or engraved using the fine point of a very hard stone, on the altars [where they worship idols]. And [it is as though] this list is engraved on their inner beings!

The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron stylus, engraved with an adamant point, on their minds and on corners of their altars where they worship.

2 [Even] their children are happy to go to the altars [to worship their gods], and to the poles [that represent the goddess] Asherah [at which their parents worshiped], shrines that are underneath all the big trees and on [all] the high hills.

Even their children remember to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, set up by the green trees and on the high hills,

3 So, I will allow your enemies to capture [Zion], your holy hill, and all your wealth and your (treasures/valuable things), and [even] the shrines on all those hills, because of the sins that you people have committed throughout your land.

on my mountain in the fields. I will hand over your wealth and all your valuable possessions as plunder, because of the sin committed on your pagan high places inside your country.

4 The [wonderful] land that I gave to you will no longer belong to you. I will tell your enemies to take you to a land that you do not know about, and you will become their slaves. [I will do that] because I am extremely angry [with you]; my being angry is [like] a fire that will burn forever.”

You will have to give up the land I gave you. I will have your enemies make you their slaves in an unfamiliar country for you made my anger blaze, and it will burn forever.

5 This is [also] what Yahweh says: “[I] will curse/condemn those who trust in human beings [to help them], those who rely on their own strength and turn away from me.

This is what the Lord says: Cursed are those who put their confidence in human beings, who trust in human strength and give up relying on the Lord.

6 They are like [dry] bushes in the desert, they are people who will not experience any good things. Those people will live in the barren desert in a salty area, where nothing grows.

They will be like a shrub alone in the desert that isn't even aware when good things happen. It just goes on living in the dry desert, in a salt flat that's uninhabited.

7 But I am pleased with those who trust in [me], Yahweh, and who confidently expect [me to take care of them].

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, who put their confidence in him.

8 Those people are like [SIM] fruit trees that have been planted along a riverbank, trees that have roots that go down into the [wet ground beside] the water. They are trees whose leaves remain green when it becomes hot, trees that continue to bear fruit when there are many months in which there is no rain.

They are like trees planted by water, sending out roots toward the stream. They don't panic when it gets hot; their leaves are always green. They don't worry during a time of drought—they go on producing fruit.

9 Human minds are extremely corrupt/deceitful, and you cannot change that. It is also completely impossible [RHQ] for anyone to understand that.

The mind is more deceptive than anything else—it's incurably sick! Who can possibly understand it?

10 But I, Yahweh, search what is in everyone’s inner being, and I examine what they are thinking. I will give all people rewards, what they deserve for what they have done.”

But I, the Lord, see what people are thinking. I examine their minds, so I can reward them depending on their attitudes and the way they behave.

11 [I, Jeremiah, agree, because I know that] people who become rich by doing things that are unjust are like birds that hatch eggs that they (did not lay/stole from another nest). So, when those people have lived only half of the years [that they expect to live], their wealth will disappear. Then [other people will realize that] those rich people have been foolish.

Like a partridge hatching eggs it didn't lay is someone who makes a fortune by cheating others. Their riches will fly away at midday, and in the end they'll look like a fool.

12 Yahweh, your temple is [like] a glorious throne that is still on a high hill.

Our Temple is a throne of glory, raised up high from the beginning.

13 You are the one whom [we] Israeli people confidently expect [to bless us], and all those who turn away from you will be disgraced. Their names will be written [only] in the dust, [and will soon disappear], because they have abandoned you, [who are like] [MET] a fountain where people obtain fresh water.

Lord, you are Israel's hope, anyone who deserts you will be disgraced. Anyone who turns their back on you will vanish like names written in the dust, for they have abandoned the Lord, the source of living water.

14 Yahweh, [please] heal me, because [if you heal me], I will truly be healed. [If you] rescue me, I will truly be safe, because you are the [only] one whom I praise.

Please heal me, Lord, and I'll be healed; save me, and I'll be saved, for you are the one I praise.

15 People often ridicule me and say, “You tell us messages that you say came from Yahweh, but (why have the things that you predicted not happened?/those predictions have not come true!)” [RHQ]

See how they keep on saying to me, “Where is the disaster that the Lord's predicted? Is it ever going to happen?”

16 Yahweh, you [appointed me to take care of your people like] a shepherd [takes care of his sheep] [MET]; I have not abandoned that work, and you know that I have not [previously] wanted this time of disaster [to come to people who ridicule me]. And you know everything that I have said [MTY] [to your people].

But I haven't been in a hurry to give up being your shepherd. I haven't wanted the time of trouble to come. You know that whatever I said was said in front of you.

17 Do not cause me to be terrified! When disasters come/occur, you are the one to whom I will go to be safe.

Please don't be the one who terrifies me! You are my protection in the time of trouble.

18 [So now], cause those who (persecute me/cause me to suffer) to be ashamed and dismayed, but do not [do things to me that will] cause me to be ashamed and dismayed. Cause them to be terrified! Do to them many things that will completely destroy them!

Bring shame on my persecutors, but not on me. Terrify them, but not me, Let them experience the time of trouble, and smash them to pieces.

19 This is what Yahweh said to me: “Go to the city gates in Jerusalem. [First] go to the gate where the kings of Judah go in and out of the city, and [then] go to each of the [other] gates.

This is what the Lord told me: Go and stand at the main gate of the city, the one used by kings of Judah, and do the same at all the other gates of Jerusalem.

20 Say to the people [at each gate], ‘You kings of Judah and everyone [else] who is living in Jerusalem and all [you other people of] Judah who enter these gates, listen to this message from Yahweh!

Tell them, Listen to the Lord's message, kings of Judah, and all you people of Judah and Jerusalem who come in through these gates.

21 He says, “Listen to this warning carefully! [Stop doing work] on (Sabbath/our rest) days! Stop carrying loads through these gates [on those days]!

This is what the Lord says: Pay attention, if you value your lives! Don't carry a load on the Sabbath day, and don't bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.

22 Do not carry loads out of your houses or do any [other] work on Sabbath days! Instead, cause Sabbath days to be (holy/set apart for me). I commanded your ancestors to do that,

Don't carry a load out of your houses, and don't do any work on the Sabbath day. Keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I ordered your forefathers.

23 but they did not listen to me or obey me. When I did things to correct them, they stubbornly [IDM] refused to pay attention to what I said or to accept it.

However, they refused to listen or pay attention. Instead they were stubborn and refused to obey or accept instruction.

24 But I say that if you obey me, and if you do not carry loads through these gates [on Sabbath days] or do any other work on Sabbath days, and if you dedicate the Sabbath days to me,

Listen carefully to me, says the Lord, and don't bring any load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and keep the Sabbath day holy, and don't do any work on it.

25 kings of Judah [MTY] and [their] officials will [continue to] go in and out of these gates. There will [always] be someone who is a descendant of [MTY] [King] David ruling [here] [MTY] in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will go in and out of these gates, riding in chariots and on horses, and there will be people living in this city forever.

Then kings and princes will enter through the gates of this city. They will sit on the throne of David. They will ride in chariots and on horses with their officials, accompanied by the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.

26 And people will come [to Jerusalem] bringing offerings to be completely burned [on the altar] and [other] offerings. They will bring to the temple grain offerings and incense and offerings to thank [me]. People will bring those offerings from the towns in Judah and the villages near Jerusalem and from the land [where the tribe] of Benjamin [lives] and from the western foothills and from the desert in the south.

People will come from the towns of Judah and everywhere around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowlands the hill country, and the Negev. They will bring burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the Lord's Temple.

27 But if you do not pay attention to what I say, and if you refuse to dedicate the Sabbath days to me, and if you [continue to] carry loads through these gates into the city on Sabbath days, I will burn these gates completely. The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out that fire.”’”

But if you refuse to listen to me and keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will set its gates alight with a fire that can't be put out, and it will burn down Jerusalem's fortresses.