The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

2 Arise, and go down into the potter’s house, and there thou shalt hear my words.

3 And I went down into the potter’s house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel.

4 And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

6 Cannot I do with you, as this potter, O house of Israel, saith the Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

7 I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.

8 If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.

9 And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build up and plant it.

10 If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice: I will repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it.

11 Now therefore tell the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: let every man of you return from his evil way, and make ye your ways and your doings good.

12 And they said; We have no hopes: for we will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?

14 Shall the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or can the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?

15 Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not trodden:

16 That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and wag his head.

17 As a burning wind will I scatter them before the enemy: I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.