Jeremiah 18–19

¹The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ²Rise, and thou hast gone down to the potter’s house, and there I cause thee to hear My words; ³and I go down to the potter’s house, and lo, he is doing a work on the stones, ⁴and marred is the vessel that he is making, as clay in the hand of the potter, and he hath turned and he maketh it another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make. ⁵And there is a word of Jehovah to me, saying: ⁶As this potter am I not able to do to you? O house of Israel, an affirmation of Jehovah. Lo, as clay in the hand of the potter, So are ye in My hand, O house of Israel. ⁷The moment I speak concerning a nation, And concerning a kingdom, To pluck up and to break down, and to destroy, ⁸And that nation hath turned from its evil, Because I have spoken against it, Then I have repented of the evil that I thought to do to it. ⁹And the moment I speak concerning a nation, And concerning a kingdom, to build, and to plant, ¹⁰And it hath done the evil thing in Mine eyes, So as not to hearken to My voice, Then I have repented of the good That I have spoken of doing to it.

¹¹And now, speak, I pray thee, unto men of Judah, And against inhabitants of Jerusalem, Saying: Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am framing against you evil, And devising against you a device, Turn back, I pray you, each from his evil way And amen your ways and your doings. ¹²And they have said, It is incurable, For after our own devices we do go, And each the stubbornness of his evil heart we do. ¹³Therefore, thus said Jehovah: Ask, I pray you, among the nations, Who hath heard like these? A very horrible thing hath the virgin of Israel done. ¹⁴Doth snow of Lebanon Cease from the rock of the field? Failed are the cold strange waters that flow? ¹⁵But My people have forgotten Me, to a vain thing they make perfume, And they cause them to stumble in their ways—paths of old, To walk in paths—a way not raised up, ¹⁶To make their land become a desolation, A hissing age-during, Every passer by it is astonished, And bemoaneth with his head. ¹⁷As an east wind I scatter them before an enemy, The neck, and not the face, I shew them, In the day of their calamity.’

¹⁸And they say, Come, And we devise against Jeremiah devices, For law doth not perish from the priest, Nor counsel from the wise, Nor the word from the prophet, Come, and we smite him with the tongue, And we do not attend to any of his words. ¹⁹Give attention, O Jehovah, unto me, And hearken to the voice of those contending with me. ²⁰Is evil recompensed instead of good, That they have dug a pit for my soul? Remember my standing before Thee to speak good of them, To turn back Thy wrath from them. ²¹Therefore, give up their sons to famine, And cause them to run on the sides of the sword, And their wives are bereaved and widows, And their men are slain by death, Their young men smitten by sword in battle, ²²A cry is heard from their houses, For Thou bringest against them suddenly a troop, For they dug a pit to capture me, And snares they have hidden for my feet. ²³And Thou, O Jehovah, Thou hast known, All their counsel against me is for death, Thou dost not cover over their iniquity, Nor their sin from before Thee blottest out, And they are made to stumble before Thee, In the time of Thine anger work against them!

Chapter 19

¹Thus said Jehovah, ‘Go, and thou hast got a potter’s earthen vessel, and of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests, ²and thou hast gone forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, that is at the opening of the gate of the pottery, and hast proclaimed there the words that I speak unto thee, ³and hast said, Hear a word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: ‘Lo, I am bringing in evil on this place, at which the ears of every one who is hearing it do tingle, ⁴because that they have forsaken Me, and make known this place, and make perfume in it to other gods, that they knew not, they and their fathers, and the kings of Judah, and they have filled this place with innocent blood, ⁵and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire, burnt-offerings to Baal, that I commanded not, nor spake of, nor did it come up on My heart.

⁶‘Therefore, lo, days are coming—an affirmation of Jehovah—and this place is not called any more, Tophet, and Valley of the son of Hinnom, but, Valley of slaughter. ⁷And I have made void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and have caused them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those seeking their life, and I have given their carcase for food to the fowl of the heavens, and to the beast of the earth, ⁸and I have made this city for a desolation, and for a hissing, every passer by it is astonished, and doth hiss for all its plagues. ⁹And I have caused them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each the flesh of his friend they do eat, in the siege and in the straitness with which straiten them do their enemies, and those seeking their life.

¹⁰‘And thou hast broken the bottle before the eyes of the men who are going with thee, ¹¹and hast said unto them: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Thus do I break this people and this city, as one breaketh the potter’s vessel, that is not able to be repaired again, and in Tophet they bury—without place to bury; ¹²so I do to this place—an affirmation of Jehovah—and to its inhabitants, so as to make this city as Tophet; ¹³and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, have been—as the place of Tophet—defiled, even all the houses on whose roofs they have made perfume to all the host of the heavens, so as to pour out oblations to other gods.’ ¹⁴And Jeremiah cometh in from Tophet, whither Jehovah had sent him to prophesy, and he standeth in the court of the house of Jehovah, and he saith unto all the people: ¹⁵‘Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am bringing in unto this city, and on all its cities, all the evil that I have spoken against it, for they have hardened their neck—not to hear My words!’

Chapter 20