The heart(A) is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?

10 “I the Lord search the heart(B)
    and examine the mind,(C)
to reward(D) each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”(E)

11 Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay
    are those who gain riches by unjust means.
When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them,
    and in the end they will prove to be fools.(F)

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The Deceitful Heart

The heart is more deceitful than anything else,(A)
and incurable—who can understand it?(B)

10 I, the Lord, examine the mind,
I test the heart[a](C)
to give to each according to his way,
according to what his actions deserve.(D)
11 He who makes a fortune unjustly
is like a partridge that hatches eggs it didn’t lay.
In the middle of his life
his riches will abandon him,
so in the end he will be a fool.(E)

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Footnotes

  1. 17:10 Lit kidneys

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.

11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

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