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Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
    and make mere flesh their strength,
    whose hearts turn away from the Lord.(A)
They shall be like a shrub in the desert
    and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.(B)

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.(C)
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
    sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
    and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
    and it does not cease to bear fruit.(D)

The heart is devious above all else;
    it is perverse—
    who can understand it?(E)
10 I the Lord test the mind
    and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
    according to the fruit of their doings.(F)

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Various Sayings

The Lord says,

“I will condemn those
    who turn away from me
and put their trust in human beings,
    in the strength of mortals.
He is like a bush in the desert,
    which grows in the dry wasteland,
    on salty ground where nothing else grows.
Nothing good ever happens to him.

“But I will bless the person
    who puts his trust in me.
(A)He is like a tree growing near a stream
    and sending out roots to the water.
It is not afraid when hot weather comes,
    because its leaves stay green;
it has no worries when there is no rain;
    it keeps on bearing fruit.

“Who can understand the human heart?
    There is nothing else so deceitful;
    it is too sick to be healed.
10 (B)I, the Lord, search the minds
    and test the hearts of people.
I treat each of them according to the way they live,
    according to what they do.”

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Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.

For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

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