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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Jeremiah 18: ESV
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