The Potter and the Clay
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 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 he was making something at the wheel. 4 When the clay pot that he was making became marred in the hand of the potter, he reworked it into another pot, forming as seemed best to the potter.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 “House of Israel, can I not do with you the same as this potter?” says the LORD. “As the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
7 At the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to uproot and to break it down and destroy it, 8 if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil ways, I will relent of the disaster that I planned to do to them. 9 At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if they do that which is evil in my sight, and they do not obey my voice, then I will relent of the good with which I said I would do.
11 Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘The LORD says: I am planning and devising disaster for you. Everyone return from his evil way now and amend your ways and your deeds.’
12 But they reply, ‘It is futile, for we will continue to pursue our own plans, and each of us will continue following the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”
13 Therefore the LORD says:
“Ask now among the nations:
‘Who has heard such things?’
The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14 Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field?
Will the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?
15 For my people have forgotten me.
They have burned incense to false gods.
They have been made to stumble in their ways,
in the ancient paths,
leaving secure roads to walk on side trails,
16 to make their land desolate
and an object of perpetual scorn.
Everyone who passes by it will be appalled,
shaking his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before their enemy.
I will show them my back and not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
A Plot Against Jeremiah
18 Then some said, “Come! Let us devise plans against Jeremiah, for the law will not depart from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us ruin him with slander and disregard his words.”
19 Pay attention to me, LORD,
and listen to what my adversaries are saying.
20 Should evil be repaid for good?
For they have dug a pit for me.
Remember how I stood before you to speak up on their behalf,
to turn your wrath away from them.
21 Therefore deliver their children to famine
and give them over to the power of the sword.
Let their wives become childless and widows.
Let their men be killed
and their young men struck by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses
when you bring a troop suddenly on them,
for they have dug a pit to take me
and hidden snares for my feet.
23 Yet, LORD, you know their entire plot to kill me.
Do not forgive their iniquity.
Do not blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you.
Deal with them while you are still angry.