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

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 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, behold, he worked a work on the wheels. ⁴ And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ⁶ O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; ⁸ If that nation, against whom I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will change from the evil that I thought to do unto them. ⁹ And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; ¹⁰ If it does evil in my sight, that it obeys not my voice, then I will change from the good, with which I said I would benefit them. ¹¹ Now therefore go, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I am shaping evil against you, and devise a plan against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. ¹² And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own plans, and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart.

¹³ Therefore thus says the LORD; Ask you now among the nations, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. ¹⁴ Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which comes from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? ¹⁵ Because my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to worthless idols, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in pathways, and not on a highway; ¹⁶ To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; everyone that passes by it shall be astonished, and shake his head. ¹⁷ I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.