Jeremiah 18

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ²Arise, and go down to ^athe potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. ³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the ^bwheels. ⁴And the vessel that he made of clay ^cwas marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁶O house of Israel, ^dcannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, ^eas the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. ⁷At what instant I shall speak ^fconcerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, ^fto pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; ⁸if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, ^gturn from their evil, ^hI will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. ⁹And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, ^fto build and to plant it; ¹⁰if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. ¹¹Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: ⁱreturn ye now every one from his evil way, and ^kmake your ways and your doings good. ¹²And they said, ^lThere is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do ^mthe imagination of his evil heart. ¹³Therefore thus saith the Lord; ⁿAsk ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done ^oa very horrible thing. ¹⁴Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place ^pbe forsaken? ¹⁵Because ^qmy people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to ^rvanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ^sancient ^tpaths, to walk in paths, in a way not ^ucast up; ¹⁶to make their land ^vdesolate, and a perpetual ^vhissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and ^wwag his head. ¹⁷I ^xwill scatter them as with ^yan east wind before the enemy; I will shew them ^zthe back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

¹⁸Then said they, Come, and ^alet us devise devices against Jeremiah; ^bfor the law shall not perish ^cfrom the priest, nor counsel from the wise, ^bnor the word from the prophet. Come, and ^dlet us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. ¹⁹Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of ^ethem that contend with me. ^20fShall evil be recompensed for good? for ^gthey have digged ^ha pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them. ²¹Therefore ⁱdeliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and ⁱlet their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. ^22jLet a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for ^gthey have digged a pit to take me, and ^khid snares for my feet. ²³Yet, Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: ^lforgive ^mnnot their iniquity, ⁿneither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; ^odeal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

XIX.