Jeremiah 18:1-14

Here is the word YAHWEH spoke to Jeremiah: “Arise and go to the potter’s workshop, and I will speak to you there.” So I went to the potter’s workshop, and there was the potter spinning his wheel. And whenever a piece of pottery turned out flawed, he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to the potter. Then YAHWEH began to speak to me. “Can I not do with the people of Israel just as the potter has done with the clay?” declares YAHWEH. “Listen, people of Israel. You are clay that I shape in my hands like the clay in the potter’s hands. If I speak of uprooting, breaking down, or destroying a nation or a kingdom, and that nation turns back from its wicked ways, then I will turn back from the disaster that I planned against it. And at another time, if I speak of planting or building a nation or a kingdom, but that nation does evil in my eyes and does not listen to my voice, then I will relent concerning the good that I planned to show it. “So now, go say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘YAHWEH says: Listen, I am a potter shaping punishment for you and working on a plan against you. Turn back, each person, from the evil way you live and the evil things you do!’ “But they will answer: ‘It’s too late! We’ll live as we choose and be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.’ ” YAHWEH Therefore YAHWEH says: “Ask the people of every nation and find out if they have ever heard of such a horrible sin as what you, virgin Israel, have done to betray me. Does the snow on Lebanon’s mountains ever melt away? Do the cold mountain streams ever run dry?