Jeremiah 18:1–17
18 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house;y there I will reveal my words to you.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel.B 4 But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.z
5 The word of the Lord came to me: 6 “House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.aa 7 At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.ab 8 However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.ac 9 At another time I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it.a 10 However, if it does what is evil in my sight by not listening to me, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.b 11 So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.’c 12 But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless.d We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”
13 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
Ask among the nations,
who has heard things like these?
Virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing.e
14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags?
Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?
15 Yet my people have forgotten me.f
They burn incense to worthless idols
that make them stumble in their waysg
on the ancient roads,h
and make them walk on new paths, not the highway.
16 They have made their land a horror,i
a perpetual object of scorn;A,j
all who pass by it will be appalledk
and shake their heads.l
17 I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind.m
I will show themB my back and not my facen
on the day of their calamity.