Jeremiah 18:4–15

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