Jeremiah 18–19

The Potter and the Clay

18The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,^{a 2}“Stand up and go down to the house of the potter, and there I will let you hear my words.” ³So I went down to the house of the potter and look, there he was doing work at the potter’s wheels. ⁴And the vessel that he was making with the clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so he made again^b another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make.

⁵And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^{c 6}“Like this potter, am I not able to do to you, O house of Israel?” declares^d Yahweh. “Look, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷One moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to uproot, and to tear down, and to destroy it.^{e 8}But if that nation turns back from its evil that I have threatened against it, then I will relent concerning the disaster that I planned to do to it. ⁹And the next moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to build, and to plant it.^{f 10}But if it does evil in my sight, to not listen to my voice, then I will relent concerning the good that I said I would do to it.

¹¹“So now then, say, please, to the people^g of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,^h ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am preparing evil against you, and I am planning a plan against you. Please turn back, each one from his evil way, and walk rightly in your ways and your deeds.” ’ ¹²But they will say, ‘It is hopeless, for we will go after our own plans, and each one of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³“Therefore thus says Yahweh,

‘Please ask among the nations, “Who has heard the like of this?”ⁱ

The virgin of Israel has done something very horrible.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave from the crags^j of Sirion?

Or are the cold waters flowing from distant mountains dried up?

¹⁵But my people have forgotten me.

They make smoke offerings to the idols,^k

and they caused them to stumble in their ways, the ancient ways,

to go into bypaths,^l not one that is built up.

¹⁶To make their land a horror,

an object of whistling for eternity.

All who pass by it will be appalled,

and he will shake his head.

¹⁷Like the wind from the east

I will scatter them before^m the enemy.

I will show them my back and not my face

in the day of their disaster.’ ”

Jeremiah’s Imprecatory Prayer

¹⁸Then they said, “Come and let us plan plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will not be lost from the priest, nor advice from the wise man, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us bring charges against him,ⁿ and let us not listen attentively to any of his words.”

¹⁹Listen attentively to me, O Yahweh,

and listen to the voice of my opponents.

²⁰Should good be repaid in place of evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for me.

Remember my standing before you^o to speak good for them,

to avert your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore^p give their children to the famine,

and hand them over to the power^q of the sword,

and let their wives be bereaved and widows,

and let their men be killed by death,

their young men struck dead

by the sword in the battle.

²²Let a cry for help be heard from their houses

when you suddenly bring upon them the raiding band,

for they have dug a pit to catch me,

and they have fixed secretly a trap for my feet.

²³But you, O Yahweh, you know

all their plans of assassination against me.^r

You must not make atonement for their iniquity,

and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from before you.^s

But let them be overthrown before you.^t

Deal with them in the time of your anger.

The Valley of the Slaughter

19Thus said Yahweh, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people, and some of the leaders of the priests, ²and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Gate of the Potsherd, and proclaim there the words that I speak to you. ³And you shall say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “Look, I am about to bring disaster upon this place so that everyone who hears it,^a his ears will ring. ⁴Because they have forsaken me, and they have defaced this place, and they have made smoke offerings in it to other gods whom they have not known, they, nor their ancestors,^b nor the kings of Judah, and they have filled up this place with the blood of the innocent, ⁵and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire, burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I ordered not, and it did not come to my mind.^c

⁶“Therefore^d look, days are about to come,” declares^e Yahweh, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but^f the Valley of the Slaughter. ⁷And I will lay waste the plans^g of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will bring them to ruin by the sword before^h their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life, and I will give their dead bodiesⁱ as food to the birds^j of heaven and to the animals^k of the earth. ⁸And I will make this city a horror, and an object of hissing, everyone who passes by it will be appalled, and will hiss because of all its wounds. ⁹And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress which their enemies and those who seek their life inflict on them.” ’

¹⁰“Then you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you. ¹¹And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, so that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury until there is no room to bury.^{l 12}Thus will I do to this place,” declares^m Yahweh, “and to its inhabitants, to make this city like Topheth. ¹³And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean like the place of Topheth, all the houses where they made smoke offerings upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and where they poured out libations to other gods.” ’ ”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh and said to all the people, ¹⁵“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Look, I am about to bring to this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their neck to not hear my words.’ ”