Jeremiah 18:1-17 - The Potter And The Clay

¹ The word that came unto Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying: ² Arise and go down to the house of the potter, - and, there, will I cause thee to hear my words. ³ So I went down, to the house of the potter, - and there he was! making a piece of work on the wheels, ⁴ Then was marred, the vessel that he was making, while yet it was clay in the hand of the potter, - so he turned and made of it another vessel, as seemed right in the eyes of the potter to make it.

⁵ Then came the word of Yahweh unto me, saying: ⁶ Like this potter, can I not deal with you O house of Israel? Demandeth Yahweh: Lo! as clay in the hand of the potter, So, are, ye, in my hand O house of Israel. ⁷ The moment I speak, concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, - to pull up and to break down, and to destroy; ⁸ and that nation return from its wickedness against whom I have spoken, then will I repent concerning the calamity which I had devised to bring upon it. ⁹ And, the moment I speak, concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, - to build and to plant; ¹⁰ and it commit wickedness in mine eyes, in not hearkening unto my voice, then will I repent concerning the good wherewith I had said I would do it good. ¹¹ Now, therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the men of Judah and concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, Thus, saith Yahweh, - Lo! I am fashioning against you calamity, and devising against you, a device, - Return I pray you every man from his wicked way, And amend your ways and your doings. ¹² And, since they will say, Hopeless! For after our own devices, will we walk, And, very one, the stubbornness of his own wicked heart, will we do!

¹³ Therefore, Thus saith Yahweh, Ask I pray you among the nations, - Who hath heard such things as these? A very horrible thing, hath, the virgin, Israel done! ¹⁴ Shall the snow of Lebanon, fall from the rock of the field? Or shall waters from afar, deep, overflowing, be dried up? ¹⁵ Yet my people have forgotten me, Unto vanity, have they been burning incense; And it hath caused them to stumble In their ways The roads of age-past times, To walk in by-paths - A way not cast up. ¹⁶ To make their land a desolation The hissings of age-abiding times, - Every one that passeth by her, shall be astonished and wag his head. ¹⁷ Like an east wind, will I scatter them before the enemy, - The back and not the face, will I let them see in the day of their distress.