The Potter and the Clay

1The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying: 2“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.

3And I went down to the potter’s house, and behold—he was making a work at the wheel. 4And the vessel that he was making with the clay was marred in the hand of the potter; and he went back and he made it into another vessel, as seemed right in the eyes of the potter to make.

5The word of YHWH came to me, saying: 6O house of Israel, “Can I not do to you⁺ as this potter?, A declaration of YHWH. Behold, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you⁺ in My hand, O house of Israel.

7The moment I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to uproot and to tear down and to destroy, 8and if that nation turns back from its evil, about which I have spoken against, then I will relent concerning the evil that I thought to bring upon it.

9And the moment I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10and if it does evil in My eyes so that it does not listen to My voice, then I will relent concerning the good that I had said I would benefit them.

11And now speak, please, to the men of Judah and to those dwelling in Jerusalem, saying, thus says YHWH: ‘Behold, I am fashioning against you⁺ a disaster and devising against you⁺ a plan! Return now, each man from his evil way, and make good your⁺ ways and your⁺ deeds.’

12And they said, ‘It is hopeless! For according to our own plans we will walk, and each man will do the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

13Therefore, thus says YHWH:

“Ask, please, among the nations,

who has heard these things?

The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

14Does it leave its rocky slopes—

the snow of Lebanon?

Or from a distance be forsaken

the cold flowing waters?

15Yet My people have forgotten Me,

they have burned incense to a vain thing;

and they made them stumble in their ways,

the paths of old,

to walk in sideroads of the way,

and not raised up,

16to make their land desolate,

an everlasting hissing;

all passing by it will be astonished

and will nod at it with his head.

17I will scatter them as with an east wind

before the enemy;

and I will show them the back and not the face,

in the day of their calamity!”

Another Plot against Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 11:18–23)

18And they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, and counsel from the wise, and the word from the prophet. Come and let us strike him with the tongue, and we will not pay attention to any of his words!

19Pay attention, O YHWH, to me,

and listen to the voice of my opponents!

20Shall evil be repaid for good?

Yet they have dug a pit for my soul.

Remember that I stood before You

to speak good for them,

to turn away Your wrath from them.

21Therefore give over their children to the famine,

and pour out by the hand of the sword;

and let their wives become childless, and widows,

and let their men be put to death,

and their young men struck down by the sword in the battle!

22Let a cry be heard from their houses,

when You bring upon them raiders suddenly!

For they have dug a pit to capture me,

and snares they have hidden for my feet.

23And You, O YHWH, know all their counsel against me to kill me.

And do not cover over their iniquity,

and do not blot out their sin from before Your face;

and let them be overthrown before Your face.

In the time of Your anger, deal against them.