At the Potter’s House

18 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like claym in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand,n Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted,o torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relentp and not inflict on it the disasterq I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be builtr up and planted, 10 and if it does evils in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsidert the good I had intended to do for it.u

11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disasterv for you and devising a planw against you. So turnx from your evil ways,y each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’z 12 But they will reply, ‘It’s no use.a We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.b’ ”

13 Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“Inquire among the nations:

Who has ever heard anything like this?c

A most horribled thing has been done

by Virgine Israel.

14 Does the snow of Lebanon

ever vanish from its rocky slopes?

Do its cool waters from distant sources

ever stop flowing?a

15 Yet my people have forgottenf me;

they burn incenseg to worthless idols,h

which made them stumblei in their ways,

in the ancient paths.j

They made them walk in byways,

on roads not built up.k

16 Their land will be an object of horrorl

and of lasting scorn;m

all who pass by will be appalledn

and will shake their heads.o

17 Like a windp from the east,

I will scatter them before their enemies;

I will show them my back and not my faceq

in the day of their disaster.”

18 They said, “Come, let’s make plansr against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priests will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise,t nor the word from the prophets.u So come, let’s attack him with our tonguesv and pay no attention to anything he says.”

19 Listen to me, Lord;

hear what my accusersw are saying!

20 Should good be repaid with evil?x

Yet they have dug a pity for me.

Remember that I stoodz before you

and spoke in their behalfa

to turn your wrath away from them.

21 So give their children over to famine;b

hand them over to the power of the sword.c

Let their wives be made childless and widows;d

let their men be put to death,

their young mene slain by the sword in battle.

22 Let a cryf be heard from their houses

when you suddenly bring invaders against them,

for they have dug a pitg to capture me

and have hidden snaresh for my feet.

23 But you, Lord, know

all their plots to killi me.

Do not forgivej their crimes

or blot out their sins from your sight.

Let them be overthrown before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.k

19 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter.l Take along some of the eldersm of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom,n near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kingso of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disasterp on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.q 4 For they have forsakenr me and made this a place of foreign godss; they have burned incenset in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.u 5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their childrenv in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.w 6 So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Tophethx or the Valley of Ben Hinnom,y but the Valley of Slaughter.z

7 “ ‘In this place I will ruina the plansa of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies,b at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcassesc as foodd to the birds and the wild animals. 8 I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn;e all who pass by will be appalledf and will scoff because of all its wounds.g 9 I will make them eath the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemiesi will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’

10 “Then break the jarj while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smashk this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will buryl the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 12 This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13 The housesm in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiledn like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofso to all the starry hostsp and poured out drink offeringsq to other gods.’ ”

14 Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the courtr of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, 15 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disasters I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-neckedt and would not listenu to my words.’ ”