Jeremiah 18
18
Jeremiah goes to the pottery shop
1The LORD told me, 2“Go to the pottery shop, and when you get there, I will tell you what to say to the people.”
3I went there and saw the potter making clay pots on his pottery wheel. 4And whenever the clay would not take the shape he wanted, he would change his mind and form it into some other shape.
5Then the LORD told me to say:
6People of Israel, I, the LORD, have power over you, just as a potter has power over clay. 7If I threaten to uproot and shatter an evil nation 8and that nation turns from its evil, I will change my mind.
9If I promise to make a nation strong, 10but its people start disobeying me and doing evil, then I will change my mind and not help them at all.
11So listen to me, people of Judah and Jerusalem! I have decided to strike you with disaster, and I won't change my mind unless you stop sinning and start living right.
12But I know you won't listen. You might as well answer, “We don't care what you say. We have made plans to sin, and we are going to be stubborn and do what we want!”
13So I, the LORD, command you to ask the nations, and find out if they have ever heard of such a horrible sin as what you have done.
14The snow
on Lebanon's mountains
never melts away,
and the streams there
never run dry.#18.14 dry: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 14.
15But you, my people,
have turned from me
to burn incense
to worthless idols.
You have left the ancient road
to follow an unknown path
where you stumble over idols.
16Your land will be ruined,
and every passer-by
will look at it with horror
and make insulting remarks.
17When your enemies attack,
I will scatter you like dust
blown by an eastern wind.
Then, on that day of disaster,
I will turn my back on you.
The plot against Jeremiah
18Some of the people said, “Let's get rid of Jeremiah! We will always have priests to teach us God's laws, as well as wise people to give us advice, and prophets to speak the LORD's messages. So, instead of listening to Jeremiah any longer, let's accuse him of a crime.”
Jeremiah prays about his enemies
19Please, LORD, answer my prayer.
Make my enemies stop
accusing me of evil.
20I tried to help them,
but they are paying me back
by digging a pit to trap me.
I even begged you
not to punish them.
21But now I am asking you
to let their children starve
or be killed in war.
Let women lose
their husbands and sons
to disease and violence.
22These people have dug pits
and set traps for me, LORD.
Make them scream in fear
when you send enemy troops
to attack their homes.
23You know they plan to kill me.
So get angry and punish them!
Don't ever forgive
their terrible crimes.
Currently Selected:
Jeremiah 18: CEVUK
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012
Jeremiah 18
18
The Potter and the Clay
1The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,#Literally “to say” 2“Stand up and go down to the house of the potter, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3So I went down to the house of the potter and look, there he was doing work at the potter’s wheels. 4And the vessel that he was making with the clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so he made again#Literally “he turned back and he made it” another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make.
5And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,#Literally “to say” 6“Like this potter, am I not able to do to you, O house of Israel?” declares#Literally “a declaration of” Yahweh. “Look, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7One moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to uproot, and to tear down, and to destroy it.#Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation 8But if that nation turns back from its evil that I have threatened against it, then I will relent concerning the disaster that I planned to do to it. 9And the next moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to build, and to plant it.#Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation 10But if it does evil in my sight, to not listen to my voice, then I will relent concerning the good that I said I would do to it.
11“So now then, say, please, to the people#Literally “man” of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,#Literally “to say” ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am preparing evil against you, and I am planning a plan against you. Please turn back, each one from his evil way, and walk rightly in your ways and your deeds.” ’ 12But they will say, ‘It is hopeless, for we will go after our own plans, and each one of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13“Therefore thus says Yahweh,
‘Please ask among the nations, “Who has heard the like of this?”#Literally “like these”
The virgin of Israel has done something very horrible.
14Does the snow of Lebanon leave from the crags#Hebrew “crag” of Sirion?
Or are the cold waters flowing from distant mountains dried up?
15But my people have forgotten me.
They make smoke offerings to the idols,#Hebrew “idol”
and they caused them to stumble in their ways, the ancient ways,
to go into bypaths,#Literally “paths of way” not one that is built up.
16To make their land a horror,
an object of whistling for eternity.
All who pass by it will be appalled,
and he will shake his head.
17Like the wind from the east
I will scatter them before#Literally “to the face of” the enemy.
I will show them my back and not my face
in the day of their disaster.’ ”
Jeremiah’s Imprecatory Prayer
18Then they said, “Come and let us plan plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will not be lost from the priest, nor advice from the wise man, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us bring charges against him,#Literally “let us strike him with the tongue” and let us not listen attentively to any of his words.”
19Listen attentively to me, O Yahweh,
and listen to the voice of my opponents.
20Should good be repaid in place of evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember my standing before you#Literally “to the face of you” to speak good for them,
to avert your wrath from them.
21Therefore#Literally “To thus” give their children to the famine,
and hand them over to the power#Literally “hand” of the sword,
and let their wives be bereaved and widows,
and let their men be killed by death,
their young men struck dead
by the sword in the battle.
22Let a cry for help be heard from their houses
when you suddenly bring upon them the raiding band,
for they have dug a pit to catch me,
and they have fixed secretly a trap for my feet.
23But you, O Yahweh, you know
all their plans of assassination against me.#Literally “all of their plan against me to the death”
You must not make atonement for their iniquity,
and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from before you.#Literally “to the face of you”
But let them be overthrown before you.#Literally “to the face of you”
Deal with them in the time of your anger.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
2010 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software