Jeremiah 5:23

Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember?

One who trusts in himself is a fool; but one who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is Yahweh’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes also, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.

Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.

But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again; and I would heal them.’

But about Israel he says, “All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.

Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.

But they say, ‘It is in vain; for we will walk after our own plans, and we will each follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”

With whom was he displeased forty years? Wasn’t it with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me.

‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:

“Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer.

Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them.’ ”

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,

“Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.”

He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good. He doesn’t abhor evil.

Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.

Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

They say continually to those who despise me, ‘Yahweh has said, “You will have peace;” ’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, ‘No evil will come on you.’

For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim.

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.

Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney.

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don’t see, and hearing, they don’t hear, neither do they understand.

‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,

Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don’t know when the time is.

saying, ‘Go to this people and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive.

Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.

Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Therefore I was displeased with that generation, and said, ‘They always err in their heart, but they didn’t know my ways.’

looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it,

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the Tent of Meeting.

Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Armies.

Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh’s majesty.

For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law;

Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.

Yes, the dogs are greedy. They can never have enough. They are shepherds who can’t understand. They have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

“Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh; “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’ ” says Yahweh.

O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

They are all grievous rebels, going around to slander. They are bronze and iron. All of them deal corruptly.

if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;

Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit. They refuse to return.

but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”

He said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive:

According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”

For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.

But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them,

For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck. Behold, while I am yet alive with you today, you have been rebellious against Yahweh. How much more after my death?

In the time of his distress, he trespassed yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz.

Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways.”

Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.

Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

“Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them.

I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Return to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.

transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

“Son of man, you dwell in the middle of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don’t see, who have ears to hear, and don’t hear; for they are a rebellious house.

They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.

My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them.

Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;