18:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
18:2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.”
18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
18:4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
18:6 “Am I not able, house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel.
18:7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot it, to tear it down, or to destroy it;
18:8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I planned to bring on it.
18:9 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it;
18:10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will relent of the good with which I said ①that I would bless it.
▷ ①Lit to do it good
18:11 So now, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am forming a disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Now turn back, each of you from his evil way, and ①correct your ways and your deeds!” ’
▷ ①Lit make good
18:12 But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will ①persist in the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
▷ ①Lit do the
18:13 “Therefore this is what the LORD says:
‘Just ask among the nations,
Who ever heard anything like ①this?
The virgin of Israel
Has done a most appalling thing.
▷ ①Lit these
18:14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave the rock of the open country alone?
Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever dried up?
18:15 For My people have forgotten Me,
They burn incense ①to worthless gods.
And they ②have stumbled in their ways,
In the ancient roads,
To walk on paths,
Not on a highway,
▷ ①Lit to worthlessness ②As in ancient versions; MT caused them to
18:16 To make their land a desolation,
An object of perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
18:17 Like an east wind I will scatter them
Before the enemy;
I will ①show them My back and not My face
In the day of their disaster.’ ”
▷ ①As in ancient versions; MT look them in the back and not in the face
18:18 Then they said, “Come and let’s devise plans against Jeremiah. Certainly the Law is not going to be lost by the priest, nor advice by the wise, nor the divine word by the prophet! Come, and let’s strike at him with our tongue, and let’s pay no attention to any of his words.”
18:19 Give Your attention to me, LORD,
And listen to ①what my opponents are saying!
▷ ①Lit the voice of my opponents
18:20 Should good be repaid with evil?
For they have dug a pit for ①me.
Remember how I stood before You
To speak good in their behalf,
So as to turn Your wrath away from them.
▷ ①Lit my soul
18:21 Therefore, give their children over to famine
And turn them over to the ①power of the sword;
And let their wives become childless and widowed.
Let their men also be slaughtered to death,
Their young men struck and killed by the sword in battle.
▷ ①Lit hands of
18:22 May a cry be heard from their houses
When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;
For they have dug a pit to capture me
And hidden snares for my feet.
18:23 But You, LORD, know
All their ①deadly schemes against me;
Do not ②forgive their wrongdoing
Or wipe out their sin from Your sight.
But may they be ③overthrown before You;
Deal with them in the time of Your anger!
▷ ①Lit unto death ②Lit cover over, atone for ③Lit ones made to stumble