Jeremiah 18–19

The Potter and the Clay

18The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Arise, and go down to ^qthe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear¹ my words.” ³So I went down to ^rthe potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴And the vessel he was making of clay was ^sspoiled in the potter’s hand, and ^the reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶“O house of Israel, ^ucan I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^vBehold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^wpluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^xturns from its evil, ^yI will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. ⁹And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^wbuild and plant it, ¹⁰and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. ¹¹Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^zReturn, every one from his evil way, and ^aamend your ways and your deeds.’

¹²“But they say, ^b‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ^cthe stubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³“Therefore thus says the Lord:

^dAsk among the nations,

Who has heard the like of this?

The virgin Israel

has done ^ea very horrible thing.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave

the crags of Sirion?²

Do the mountain waters run dry,³

the cold flowing streams?

^15fBut my people have forgotten me;

they make offerings to ^gfalse gods;

they made them stumble in their ways,

^hin the ancient roads,

and to walk into side roads,

ⁱnot the highway,

¹⁶making their land ^ja horror,

a thing ^jto be hissed at forever.

^kEveryone who passes by it is horrified

^land shakes his head.

^17mLike the east wind ⁿI will scatter them

before the enemy.

^oI will show them my back, not my face,

in the day of their calamity.”

¹⁸Then they said, ^p“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^qfor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^rCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

¹⁹Hear me, O Lord,

and ^slisten to the voice of my adversaries.

^20tShould good be repaid with evil?

Yet ^uthey have dug a pit for my life.

^vRemember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore ^wdeliver up their children to famine;

give them over to the power of the sword;

let their wives become childless ^xand widowed.

May their men meet death by pestilence,

their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.

^22yMay a cry be heard from their houses,

when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!

For ^uthey have dug a pit to take me

^zand laid snares for my feet.

²³Yet ^ayou, O Lord, know

all their plotting to kill me.

^bForgive not their iniquity,

nor blot out their sin from your sight.

Let them be overthrown before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.

The Broken Flask

19Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy ^ca potter’s earthenware ^dflask, and take some of ^ethe elders of the people and some of ^ethe elders of the priests, ²and go out ^fto the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. ³You shall say, ^g‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^hO kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that ⁱthe ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ^4jBecause the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; ^kand because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ^5land have built the high places of Baal ^lto burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, ^mwhich I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ⁶therefore, ⁿbehold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or ^othe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷And in this place ^pI will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, ^qand will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. ^rI will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. ⁸And I will make this city ^sa horror, ^sa thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. ^9tAnd I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor ^uin the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’

¹⁰“Then ^vyou shall break ^wthe flask in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, ^xas one breaks a potter’s vessel, ^yso that it can never be mended. ^zMen shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. ¹²Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city ^alike Topheth. ¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—^ball the houses on whose ^croofs offerings have been offered ^dto all the host of heaven, and ^edrink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled ^alike the place of Topheth.’ ”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah came from ^fTopheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, ^gand he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: ¹⁵“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, ^hbecause they have stiffened their neck, ⁱrefusing to hear my words.”