Jeremiah 18

1THE word which came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

2Arise and go down to the house of the potter and there thou shalt hear My words.

3So I went down to the house of the potter; and behold he was making a piece of work on stones;

4and the vessel, which he was fashioning with his hands, fell, whereupon he again made it a vessel of another sort as it seemed good to him to make it.

5Then a word of the Lord came to me saying, Cannot I do with you,

6O house of Israel, as this potter?

7Behold you are in My hands like the clay of the potter. When I speak to a nation or kingdom, that I will remove and destroy them;

8if that nation turn from all their evils, I will relent in respect to the evils which I was resolving to bring on them.

9And when I speak to a nation and kingdom that I will build up and replant.

10If they do evil in My sight so as not to hearken to My voice, I indeed will alter My mind in respect to the good things which I spoke of doing for them.

11Now I have said to the men of Juda and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Behold I am preparing evils against you and forming against you a determination; turn therefore every one from his evil way and make better things the objects of your pursuit.

12But they said, We will act like men. We will follow our own courses; and what every one findeth agreeable to his own wicked heart that we will do.

13Therefore thus saith the Lord: Inquire among the nations. Who hath heard of such horrible things as the virgin of Israel hath sedulously done?

14Will crags forsake a rock or snow quit Lebanon? Or water turn aside when furiously driven by wind?

15Because My people have forgotten Me-have burned incense to vanity; they will therefore break down the everlasting barriers in their ways that they may walk in paths having no road for traveling-

16that they may make the land a desolation-an everlasting object of pity. All that pass through it shall be astonished and shake their head.

17Like a burning wind I will scatter them before their enemies. I will shew them the day of their destruction.

18Upon this they said, Come let us settle on account with Jeremias. Because law shall not perish from the priest, nor coun sel from the wise, nor a word from the prophet, Come and that we may smite him with the tongue, let us hear all his words.

20Shall evils be returned for good offices? Because they contrived designs against my life and concealed the punishment they intended for me. Remember how I stood before Thee to intercede for them—to turn away Thy wrath from them.

21For this cause deliver up their sons to famine and give them up in multitudes to the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows, and the husbands be cut off by pestilence and their young men fall by the sword in battle.

22Let a scream be heard in their houses. Thou wilt bring robbers suddenly on them because they contrived a speech to entrap me and concealed the snares they had set for me.

23Thou indeed, O Lord, knewest all their designs against me to put me to death. Absolve them not from their wickedness, nor blot out their sins from before Thee. Let their weakness be before Thee. Deal with them in the time of Thy wrath.