Jeremiah 18:10–17

¹⁰but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.^{* 11}Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.^*

Israel’s Stubborn Idolatry

¹²But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.”^*

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord:

Ask among the nations:

Who has heard the like of this?

The virgin Israel has done

a most horrible thing.^*

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave

the crags of Sirion?^o

Do the mountain^p waters run dry,^q

the cold flowing streams?

¹⁵But my people have forgotten me;

they burn offerings to a delusion;

they have stumbled^r in their ways,

in the ancient roads,

and have gone into bypaths,

not the highway,^*

¹⁶making their land a horror,

a thing to be hissed at forever.

All who pass by it are horrified

and shake their heads.^*

¹⁷Like the wind from the east,

I will scatter them before the enemy.

I will show them my back, not my face,

in the day of their calamity.^*