Jeremiah 17:5-11

New Catholic Bible

⁵ Thus says the Lord:
    Cursed is anyone who places his trust in human beings
and relies on human strength
    while his heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶ Such a person is like a shrub in the desert;
    when relief comes, he will not be aware of it.
He will continue to live
    in the parched areas of the desert,
    in an uninhabited salt land.
⁷ Blessed are those who trust in the Lord
    and whose hope is the Lord.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that spreads out its roots to the stream.
When the heat comes, it does not fear;
    its leaves stay green.
It is not concerned in a year of drought,
    and it never fails to bear fruit.
⁹ The heart is more deceitful than any other thing,
    and it is also perverse.
    Who can uncover its secrets?
¹⁰ I, the Lord, search the heart
    and probe the mind
to reward all according to their conduct
    and as their deeds deserve.
¹¹ Like a partridge^[a] hatching eggs that it has not laid,
    so is the man who amasses riches unjustly.
When his life is half completed,
    they will desert him;
and when his life is at an end,
    he will prove to have been a fool.