Jeremiah 18
18
Jeremiah Goes to the Pottery Shop
1The Lord told me, 2“Jeremiah, 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 as we please!”
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 passerby
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.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 18
18
The Potter and the Clay
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2“Arise, and go down to #ch. 19:1; 1 Chr. 4:23; [Zech. 11:13]the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear#18:2 Or will cause you to hear my words.” 3So I went down to #ch. 19:1; 1 Chr. 4:23; [Zech. 11:13]the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4And the vessel he was making of clay was #ch. 13:7 spoiled in the potter’s hand, and #[Rom. 9:21]he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6“O house of Israel, #Isa. 45:9; See Rom. 9:20-24 can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. #Job 10:9; Isa. 64:8Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, 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 #ch. 1:10; 42:10pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, #Ezek. 18:21 turns from its evil, #ch. 26:3, 13, 19; Judg. 2:18; Jonah 3:10I 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 #[See ver. 7 above]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. #ch. 35:15; 2 Kgs. 17:13; Jonah 3:8 Return, every one from his evil way, and #ch. 7:3; 25:5; 35:15amend your ways and your deeds.’
12“But they say, #ch. 2:25 ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to #See ch. 3:17the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13“Therefore thus says the Lord:
# ch. 2:10, 11 Ask among the nations,
Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done #ch. 5:30a very horrible thing.
14Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion?#18:14 Hebrew of the field
Do the mountain waters run dry,#18:14 Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up
the cold flowing streams?
15 # ch. 2:13, 32; 17:13 But my people have forgotten me;
they make offerings to #ch. 2:5; 10:15; 16:19 false gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
# ch. 6:16 in the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
# [Isa. 57:14] not the highway,
16making their land #ch. 19:8; 25:9, 11, 18; 49:13, 17; 50:13; 51:37; 2 Chr. 29:8 a horror,
a thing #ch. 19:8; 25:9, 11, 18; 49:13, 17; 50:13; 51:37; 2 Chr. 29:8 to be hissed at forever.
# ch. 50:13; Lam. 2:15 Everyone who passes by it is horrified
#
Job 16:4; Ps. 22:7; Matt. 27:39 and shakes his head.
17 #
Gen. 41:6, 23, 27; Ex. 10:13; Job 27:21; Ps. 48:7; Ezek. 27:26; Hos. 13:15; Jonah 4:8 Like the east wind #ch. 13:24 I will scatter them
before the enemy.
# [ch. 2:27] I will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
18Then they said, #ch. 11:19 “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, #[ch. 2:8; 5:13, 31; 6:13] for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. #ch. 9:3, 8; Job 5:21; [Ps. 31:20]Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”
19Hear me, O Lord,
and #Ps. 35:1; Isa. 49:25listen to the voice of my adversaries.
20 #
Ps. 35:12 Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet #Ps. 35:7; 57:6; 119:85 they have dug a pit for my life.
# [Neh. 13:14] Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21Therefore #Ps. 109:10 deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless #Ps. 109:9and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 # [ch. 20:16] May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For #[See ver. 20 above] they have dug a pit to take me
#
Ps. 140:5
and laid snares for my feet.
23Yet #[Ps. 35:22] you, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
#
Neh. 4:5
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.
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