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is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will reveal to you My words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working at his wheel. 4 But the pot that he was making from the clay became marred in the hand of the potter, so he shaped it into another pot, as seemed best to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Just like clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 At the time that I announce concerning a nation or kingdom that it will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, 8 and the nation that I have spoken against turns from its evil, I will not bring upon it the disaster that I intended to bring about. 9 And if I announce at another time that I will build up or plant a nation or kingdom, 10 and it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will not bring about the good that I said I would do.
11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the people of Jerusalem, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am devising a plan and preparing a disaster against you. So turn away, each of you from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds’. 12 But they will say, ‘It is hopeless. We will continue to follow our own plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart’.”
13 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
“Ask among the nations:
Who has ever heard of anything like this?
Virgin Israel has done
a most awful thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon
ever vanish from the rocky heights?
Do the cold flowing waters
from its distant slopes ever fail?
15 Yet My people have forgotten Me,
they burn incense to worthless idols,
that make them stumble in their ways—
away from the ancient paths.
They are made to walk along bypaths,
on a road not built up.
16 Their land will be made desolate,
an object to be perpetually hissed at;
everyone who passes by it will be astonished
and will shake his head.
17 Like the east wind,
I will scatter them before the enemy;
I will show them My back and not My face
in the day of their calamity.”
18 Then they said, “Come, let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the instruction in law will never be lost from the priest, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. So come, let’s attack him with the tongue and pay no attention to any of his words.”
19 “Listen to me, O Lord;
hear what my adversaries are saying!
20 Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember that I stood before You
to speak good on their behalf,
to turn Your wrath away from them.
21 Therefore, deliver their children over to famine,
and pour out the power of the sword upon them.
Let their wives become widows
who are bereaved of their children;
let their men be put to death,
their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses,
when You bring raiders upon them suddenly;
for they have dug a pit to capture me,
and have hidden snares for my feet.
23 But You know, O Lord,
all of their plots to kill me.
Do not forgive them for their iniquity,
or blot out their sin from Your sight.
Let them be made to stumble before You;
deal with them in the time of Your anger.”