Jeremiah 18

¹ The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by Yahweh,

² ‘Get up and make your way down to the potter’s house; there I shall let you hear what I have to say’.

³ So I went down to the potter’s house; and there he was, working at the wheel.

⁴ And whenever the vessel he was making came out wrong, as happens with the clay handled by potters, he would start afresh and work it into another vessel, as potters do.

⁵ Then this word of Yahweh was addressed to me,

⁶ ‘House of Israel, can not I do to you what this potter does? – it is Yahweh who speaks. Yes, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.

⁷ On occasion, I decree for some nation, for some kingdom, that I will tear up, knock down, destroy;

⁸ but if this nation, against which I have pronounced sentence, abandons its wickedness, I then change my mind about the evil which I had intended to inflict on it.

⁹ On another occasion, I decree for some nation, for some kingdom, that I will build up and plant;

¹⁰ but if that nation does what displeases me, refusing to listen to my voice, I then change my mind about the good which I had intended to confer on it.

¹¹ So now, say this to the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, “Yahweh says this: Listen, I have been preparing a disaster for you, I have been working out a plan against you. So now, each one of you, turn back from your evil ways, amend your conduct and actions.”

¹² They, however, will say, “What is the use of talking? We prefer to do as we please; we mean to behave, each of us, as his wicked heart dictates.”

¹³ ‘Therefore – Yahweh says this: Ask, if you will, among the nations if anyone has heard anything like this. She has done a deed of horror, the Virgin of Israel.

¹⁴ Does the snow of Lebanon vanish from the lofty crag? Do the proud waters run dry, so coolly flowing?

¹⁵ And yet my people have forgotten me! They burn their incense to a Nothing! They have lost their footing in their ways, on the roads of former times, to walk in tortuous paths, a way unmarked.

¹⁶ They will make their country desolate, everlastingly derided: every passer-by will be appalled at it and shake his head.

¹⁷ Like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy. I will turn my back to them and not my face on the day of their disaster.’

¹⁸ ‘Come on,’ they said ‘let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah; the priest will not run short of instruction without him, nor the sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word. Come on, let us hit at him with his own tongue; let us listen carefully to every word he says.’

¹⁹ Listen to me, Yahweh, hear what my adversaries are saying.

²⁰ Should evil be returned for good? (For they are digging a pit for me.) Remember how I stood in your presence to plead on their behalf, to turn your wrath away from them.

²¹ Then hand their sons over to famine, abandon them to the edge of the sword. May their wives become childless and widowed. May their husbands die of plague, their young men be cut down by the sword in battle.

²² Let cries re-echo from their houses as you bring raiders suddenly on them. For they have dug a pit to catch me, they have laid snares to trap my feet.

²³ But you, Yahweh, know all their murderous plots against me. Do not forgive their crime, do not efface their sin from your sight. Keep their destruction always in mind, when the time for your anger comes deal with them.