Jeremiah 18
18
Parable of the Potter
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2“Go down at once to the potter’s house;#Is 29:16; Jr 19:1–2 there I will reveal my words to you.” 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel.#18:3 Lit pair of stones 4But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.#Rm 9:21
5The word of the Lord came to me: 6“House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay?” — this is the Lord’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.#Gn 2:7–8; Is 43:1; 64:8 7At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.#Jr 1:10; 24:6; 31:28 8However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.#2Sm 24:1; Jr 42:10; Jnh 3:10 9At another time I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it.#Jr 1:10 10However, if it does what is evil in my sight by not listening to me, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.#Ezk 18:25–29; 33:12–13 11So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.’#Jr 4:18; 7:3; 35:15 12But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless.#Is 57:12; Jr 2:25 We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”
Deluded Israel
13Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
Ask among the nations,
who has heard things like these?
Virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing.#Jr 5:30; Hs 6:10
14Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags?
Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?
15Yet my people have forgotten me.#Jr 2:32; 3:21; 13:25; Ezk 22:12; 23:35; Hs 8:14
They burn incense to worthless idols
that make them stumble in their ways#Ezk 14:3,4,7; 44:12; Rv 2:14
on the ancient roads,#Jr 6:16
and make them walk on new paths, not the highway.
16They have made their land a horror,#Dt 28:37; 2Ch 29:8; 30:7; Jr 5:30; 19:8; 25:9,18; 29:18; 42:18; 44:12,22; 50:13; Mc 6:16; Zph 2:15
a perpetual object of scorn;#18:16 Lit hissing#Lm 2:15
all who pass by it will be appalled#Jr 19:8; 49:17
and shake their heads.#Jb 2:11; 42:11; Ps 22:7; 69:20; Is 51:19; Jr 15:5; 48:27; Nah 3:7
17I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind.#Ex 10:13; 14:21; Jb 27:21; 38:24; Ps 48:7; Is 27:8; Jr 13:24
I will show them#18:17 LXX, Lat, Syr, Tg; MT reads will look at them my back and not my face#2Ch 29:6; Jr 2:27; 32:33; Ezk 8:16
on the day of their calamity.
Plot against Jeremiah
18Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah,#Jr 11:19 for instruction will never be lost from the priest,#Jr 2:8,26; 5:31; 6:13; 8:10; 13:13; 23:11,33; Ezk 7:26; Mc 3:11; Zph 3:4 or counsel from the wise, or a word from the prophet.#Jr 5:13 Come, let’s denounce him#18:18 Lit let’s strike him with the tongue and pay no attention to all his words.”
19Pay attention to me, Lord.
Hear what my opponents are saying!#Ps 55:2–3; 142:6
20Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.#Ps 35:7; 57:6
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good on their behalf,
to turn your anger from them.
21Therefore, hand their children over to famine,#Ps 109:9–20
and give them over to the power of the sword.
Let their wives become childless and widowed,
their husbands slain by deadly disease,#18:21 Lit by death
their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard from their houses
when you suddenly bring raiders against them,
for they have dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden snares for my feet.#Ps 140:5; 142:3
23But you, Lord, know
all their deadly plots against me.
Do not wipe out their iniquity;#Neh 4:5
do not blot out their sin before you.
Let them be forced to stumble before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.
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Jeremiah 18: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
Jeremias (Jeremiah) 18
18
1The word that came from Jeremias to the Lord, saying:
2Arise, and go down to the potter's house: and there thou shalt hear my words.
3And I went down into the potter's house: and: behold, he was doing a work on the wheel.
4And the vessel was broken which he was making with clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6Cannot I do with you, as this potterO house of Israel saith the Lord? Behold, as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
7I will suddenly speak against a nation and against a kingdom to root out and to pull down and to destroy it.
8If that nation against which I have spoken shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.
9And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build up and plant it.
10If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, I will repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it.
11Now therefore tell the men of Juda and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. Let every man of you return from his evil way: and make ye your ways and your doings good.
12And they said: We have no hopes, for we will go after our own thoughts and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart.
13Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath heard such horrible things as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?
14Shall now the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? Or can the cold waters that gush out and run down be taken away?
15Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not trodden:
16That their land might be given up to desolation and to a perpetual hissing. Every one that shall pass by it shall be astonished and wag his head.
17As a burning wind will I scatter them before the enemy. I will shew them the back and not the face, in the day of their destruction.
18And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.
19Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.
20Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for them and turn away thy indignation from them.
21Therefore, deliver up their children to famine and bring them into the hands of the sword. Let their wives be bereaved of children and widows: and let their husbands be slain by death. Let their young men be stabbed with the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard out of their houses: for thou shalt bring the robber upon them suddenly, because they have digged a pit to take me and have hid snares for my feet.
23But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto death. Forgive not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight. Let them be overthrown before thy eyes: in the time of thy wrath do thou destroy them.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.