Get started free

/Chapter 18
18 / 52

Jeremiah

ESV

Chapter 18

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2“Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 5Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will build and plant it, 10and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’ 12But they will say, ‘It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ 13Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations, Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a horrible thing. 14Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the cold waters flowing from afar ever run dry? 15But my people have forgotten me; they burn offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and made them walk in bypaths, in a road not built up, 16making their land a desolation, a thing to be hissed at forever; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will wag his head. 17Like a scorching east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity.” 18Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor a word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.” 19Listen to me, O LORD, and hear the voice of my adversaries. 20Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. 21Therefore deliver up their children to famine; deliver them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widows; may their men be slain by pestilence, their youths struck down by the sword in battle. 22May a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring plunderers suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet. 23Yet you, O LORD, know all their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.