¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord and said, ²“Get up and go down to the potter's house, and I will inform you of my words there.” ³So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making artisanry at the turntable. ⁴But the article which he was making from clay became spoiled in the hand of the potter, and he started again, and he made it into another article, as was the right thing to do in the eyes of the potter. ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me and said, ⁶“Am I not able to do with you as this potter has done, O house of Israel? says the Lord. Look, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, so you are in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷Now for one moment I will speak about a nation and about a kingdom, about plucking up and tearing down and destroying. ⁸But if that nation turns away from its evil which I have spoken about concerning it, then I will repent of the evil which I had intended to do to it. ⁹And for another moment I will speak about a nation and about a kingdom, about building and planting. ¹⁰But if it does evil in my eyes, by not heeding my voice, then I will repent of the good which I had said that I would do to it. ¹¹So now, kindly speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: «I am about to craft evil on you, and to devise a design against you. Do turn away – each from his own evil way – and make your ways and your deeds good.» ’ ” ¹²But they said, “It is desperate, for we will walk after our own thoughts, and we will each act according to the obstinacy of his evil heart.” ¹³That is why this is what the Lord says:

“Just ask among the nations

Who has heard such things.

The virgin of Israel has done

A very horrible thing.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon

Desert the rock in the plain?

Or will the flowing foreign cold water

Be withdrawn?

¹⁵But my people have forgotten me;

They burn incense in vain.

And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways.

They have forsaken the age-old paths

By walking in the tracks of a road not raised up,

¹⁶So making their land a desolation

– An age-long object of jeering.

Everyone who passes over it is astonished

And shakes his head.

¹⁷Like an east wind,

I will scatter them before the enemy.

I will show them the back of the neck

And not the face

On the day of their downfall.”

¹⁸Then they said, “Come and let us devise designs against Jeremiah, for a pronouncement from a priest will not fail, nor counsel from a wise man, nor a word from a prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words.”

¹⁹O Lord, heed me,

And hear the voice

Of those who take issue with me.

²⁰Will evil be recompensed for good?

For they have dug a lethal pit for me.

Remember me standing before you

To speak a good thing concerning them,

To turn your fury away from them.

²¹Therefore deliver their sons to famine,

And give them over to the blade of the sword,

And let their wives be bereaved of children

And be widows,

And let their men be put to death,

And let their young men be struck by the sword in battle.

²²Let their shout be heard from their houses

When you suddenly bring a troop on them,

For they have dug a pit to trap me,

And they have hidden snares for my feet.

²³But you, O Lord,

Know all their deadly plans against me.

Do not pardon their iniquity,

And do not blot out their sin from your presence,

And let them be made to stumble before you.

At the time of your anger,

Deal with them.