Jeremiah 18–19

Parable of the Potter

18This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Go down at once to the potter’s house; ^gthere I will reveal My words to you.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel. ^h4But 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. ⁱ

⁵The 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. ^j7At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. ^k8However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it. ^l9At another time I announce that I will build and plant a nation or a kingdom. ^m10However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it. ⁿ¹¹So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem: This is what the Lord says: 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. ^o12But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless. ^pWe will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”

Deluded Israel

¹³Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

Ask among the nations,

Who has heard things like these?

Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing. ^q

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags?

Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?

¹⁵Yet My people have forgotten Me. ^r

They burn incense to false idols

that make them stumble in their ways ^s

on the ancient roads ^t

and walk on new paths, not the highway.

¹⁶They have made their land a horror, ^u

a perpetual object of scorn; ^vw

everyone who passes by it will be horrified ^x

and shake his head. ^y

¹⁷I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. ^z

I will show them ^aMy back and not My face ^b

on the day of their calamity.

Plot against Jeremiah

¹⁸Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, ^cfor instruction will never be lost from the priest, ^dor counsel from the wise, or an oracle from the prophet. ^eCome, let’s denounce him ^fand pay no attention to all his words.”

¹⁹Pay attention to me, Lord.

Hear what my opponents are saying! ^g

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for me. ^h

Remember how I stood before You

to speak good on their behalf,

to turn Your anger from them.

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine, ⁱ

and pour the sword’s power on them.

Let their wives become childless and widowed,

their husbands slain by deadly disease, ^j

their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses

when You suddenly bring raiders against them,

for they have dug a pit to capture me

and have hidden snares for my feet. ^k

²³But You, Lord, know

all their deadly plots against me.

Do not wipe out their guilt; ^l

do not blot out their sin before You.

Let them be forced to stumble before You;

deal with them in the time of Your anger.

The Clay Jar

19This is what the Lord says: “Go, buy a potter’s clay ^mjar. Take ⁿsome of the elders of the people and some of the leading priests ^o2and go out to the Valley of Hinnom ^pnear the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you. ³Say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. ^qThis is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder ^rs4because they have abandoned Me ^tand made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ^u5They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought. ^vw

⁶“Therefore, take note! The days are coming” ^x—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ^yz7I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who want to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land. ^a8I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and scoff because of all its wounds. ^b9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other’s flesh in the siege and distress that their enemies, those who want to take their life, inflict on them. ^c

¹⁰“Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people traveling with you, ¹¹and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials. ^d12I will do so to this place”—this is the declaration of the Lord—“and to its residents, making this city like Topheth. ¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to the whole heavenly host ^eand poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

¹⁴Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple, ^fand proclaimed to all the people, ¹⁵“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to bring on this city—and on all its dependent villages—all the disaster that I spoke against it, for they have become obstinate, not obeying My words.’ ” ^g