The Potter and the Clay

18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the 1wheel. 4 And the vessel that he 2made of clay was 3marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, acan I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, bas the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to cpluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 dif that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, eI will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. fReturn now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings ggood.” ’ ”

God’s Warning Rejected

12 And they said, h“That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one 4obey the idictates 5of his evil heart.”

13 Therefore thus says the Lord:

j“Ask now among the Gentiles,

Who has heard such things?

The virgin of Israel has done ka very horrible thing.

14 Will a man 6leave the snow water of Lebanon,

Which comes from the rock of the field?

Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

15 “Because My people have forgotten lMe,

They have burned incense to worthless idols.

And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,

From the mancient paths,

To walk in pathways and not on a highway,

16 To make their land ndesolate and a perpetual ohissing;

Everyone who passes by it will be astonished

And shake his head.

17 pI will scatter them qas with an east wind before the enemy;

rI will 7show them the back and not the face

In the day of their calamity.”

Jeremiah Persecuted

18 Then they said, s“Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; tfor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”

19 Give heed to me, O Lord,

And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!

20 uShall evil be repaid for good?

For they have vdug a pit for my life.

Remember that I wstood before You

To speak good 8for them,

To turn away Your wrath from them.

21 Therefore xdeliver up their children to the famine,

And pour out their blood

By the force of the sword;

Let their wives become widows

And ybereaved of their children.

Let their men be put to death,

Their young men be slain

By the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses,

When You bring a troop suddenly upon them;

For they have dug a pit to take me,

And hidden snares for my feet.

23 Yet, Lord, You know all their counsel

Which is against me, to slay me.

zProvide no atonement for their iniquity,

Nor blot out their sin from Your sight;

But let them be overthrown before You.

Deal thus with them

In the time of Your aanger.

The Sign of the Broken Flask

19 Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to athe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 band say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will ctingle.

4 “Because they dhave forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with ethe blood of the innocents 5 f(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, gwhich I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or hthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, iand I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their jcorpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 8 I will make this city kdesolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the lflesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’

10 m“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: n“Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be 1made whole again; and they shall obury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled plike the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose qroofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and rpoured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”

14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in sthe 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 will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because tthey have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”

The Word of God to Pashhur

20 Now aPashhur the son of bImmer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high cgate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.

3 And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but 1Magor-Missabib. 4 For thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will dgive all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I ewill deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and fcarry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have gprophesied lies.’ ”

Jeremiah’s Unpopular Ministry

7 O Lord, You 2induced me, and I was persuaded;

hYou are stronger than I, and have prevailed.

iI am 3in derision daily;

Everyone mocks me.

8 For when I spoke, I cried out;

jI shouted, “Violence and plunder!”

Because the word of the Lord was made to me

A reproach and a derision daily.

9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,

Nor speak anymore in His name.”

But His word was in my heart like a kburning fire

Shut up in my bones;

I was weary of holding it back,

And lI could not.

10 mFor I heard many 4mocking:

“Fear on every side!”

“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”

nAll my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,

“Perhaps he can be induced;

Then we will prevail against him,

And we will take our revenge on him.”

11 But the Lord is owith me as a mighty, awesome One.

Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not pprevail.

They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.

Their qeverlasting confusion will never be forgotten.

12 But, O Lord of hosts,

You who rtest the righteous,

And see the 5mind and heart,

sLet me see Your vengeance on them;

For I have pleaded my cause before You.

13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

For tHe has delivered the life of the poor

From the hand of evildoers.

14 uCursed be the day in which I was born!

Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!

15 Let the man be cursed

Who brought news to my father, saying,

“A male child has been born to you!”

Making him very glad.

16 And let that man be like the cities

Which the Lord—voverthrew, and did not relent;

Let him whear the cry in the morning

And the shouting at noon,

17 xBecause he did not kill me from the womb,

That my mother might have been my grave,

And her womb always enlarged with me.

18 yWhy did I come forth from the womb to zsee 6labor and sorrow,

That my days should be consumed with shame?

Jerusalem’s Doom is Sealed

21 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when aKing Zedekiah sent to him bPashhur the son of Melchiah, and cZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 2 d“Please inquire of the Lord for us, for 1Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”

3 Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of