PARABLE OF THE POTTER

18 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house;y there I will reveal my words to you.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel.B 4 But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.z

5 The word of the Lord came to me: 6 “House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.aa 7 At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.ab 8 However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.ac 9 At another time I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it.a 10 However, if it does what is evil in my sight by not listening to me, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.b 11 So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.’c 12 But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless.d We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”

DELUDED ISRAEL

13 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

Ask among the nations,

who has heard things like these?

Virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing.e

14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags?

Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?

15 Yet my people have forgotten me.f

They burn incense to worthless idols

that make them stumble in their waysg

on the ancient roads,h

and make them walk on new paths, not the highway.

16 They have made their land a horror,i

a perpetual object of scorn;A,j

all who pass by it will be appalledk

and shake their heads.l

17 I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind.m

I will show themB my back and not my facen

on the day of their calamity.

PLOT AGAINST JEREMIAH

18 Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah,o for instruction will never be lost from the priest,p or counsel from the wise, or a word from the prophet.q Come, let’s denounce himC and pay no attention to all his words.”

19 Pay attention to me, Lord.

Hear what my opponents are saying!r

20 Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for me.s

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good on their behalf,

to turn your anger from them.

21 Therefore, hand their children over to famine,t

and give them over to the power of the sword.

Let their wives become childless and widowed,

their husbands slain by deadly disease,D

their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses

when you suddenly bring raiders against them,

for they have dug a pit to capture me

and have hidden snares for my feet.u

23 But you, Lord, know

all their deadly plots against me.

Do not wipe out their iniquity;v

do not blot out their sin before you.

Let them be forced to stumble before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.