Jeremiah 18

1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh:

2“Get up and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”

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

4But the vessel he was making from the clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, so he made it over into another vessel, as it seemed right to the potter to make it.

5Then the word of Yahweh came to me:

6“House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? declares Yahweh. Look, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

7At one moment I may speak concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will uproot it, tear it down, and destroy it.

8But if that nation I spoke against turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I planned to bring on it.

9And at another moment I may speak concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will build it and plant it.

10But if it does what is evil in my sight and does not obey my voice, then I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do for it.

11Now then, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: This is what Yahweh says: Look, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Turn back, each of you, from your evil way, and reform your ways and your actions.

12But they will say, ‘It is hopeless! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

13Therefore this is what Yahweh says: Ask among the nations: Who has ever heard anything like this? The virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing.

14Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the rocky slopes of the open country? Do the cold waters flowing from far away ever run dry?

15Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols. These have made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, so that they walk on side paths, on a road not built up,

16making their land a horror, a thing people hiss at forever. Everyone who passes by it will be appalled and shake his head.

17Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster.

18Then they said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us attack him with our tongues, and let us pay no attention to any of his words.”

19Pay attention to me, Yahweh, and listen to what my opponents are saying.

20Should evil be repaid for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good on their behalf, to turn your wrath away from them.

21So hand their children over to famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their men be put to death, and their young men be struck down by the sword in battle.

22Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and hidden snares for my feet.

23But you, Yahweh, know all their plots to kill me. Do not make atonement for their iniquity, and do not blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.