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

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, 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 making a work on the wheels. ⁴ When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ⁶ House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. ⁷ At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; ⁸ if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. ⁹ At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; ¹⁰ if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them. ¹¹ Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. ¹² But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³ Therefore thus says Yahweh: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. ¹⁴ Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? ¹⁵ For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up; ¹⁶ to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby 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.