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

¹ The Word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, 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 was working a work on the wheel. ⁴ And the vessel that he made in clay was ruined 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 Jehovah came to me, saying, ⁶ O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says Jehovah. Behold, As the clay in the potter's hands, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ The instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck it up and to pull it down, and to destroy it; ⁸ if that nation, against whom I have spoken, will turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. ⁹ And the instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build it and to plant it; ¹⁰ if it does evil in My sight, not to obey My voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would do them good. ¹¹ Now then please, speak to the men of Judah, and to the people of Jerusalem, saying, So says Jehovah: Behold, I am forming evil against you, and devising a plan against you. Return now, each one 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 ways, and we will each one do according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³ Therefore so says Jehovah, Ask now among the nations; who has heard the like of this? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. ¹⁴ Does the snow of Lebanon forsake 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 vanity, and they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways from the old paths, to walk in by-paths, not in the highway, ¹⁶ to make their land desolate and a hissing forever. Everyone who passes by will be amazed, and will wag 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.