JEREMIAH 18 [†]The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2“Arise, and go down to  q the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3[†]So I went down to  r the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4[†]And the vessel he was making of clay was  s spoiled in the potter’s hand, and  t 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,  u can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD.  v Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7[†]If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will  w pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8[†]and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken,  x turns from its evil,  y I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9[†]And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will  w build and plant it, 10[†]and 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. 11[^][†]Now, 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.  z Return, every one from his evil way, and  a amend your ways and your deeds.’

12[†]“But they say,  b ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to  c the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13[†] “Therefore thus says the LORD:

 d Ask among the nations,

Who has heard the like of this?

The virgin Israel

has done  e a very horrible thing.

14[†] Does the snow of Lebanon leave

the crags of Sirion? [1]

Do the mountain waters run dry, [2]

the cold flowing streams?

15  f But my people have forgotten me;

they make offerings to  g false gods;

they made them stumble in their ways,

 h in the ancient roads,

and to walk into side roads,

 i not the highway,

16 making their land  j a horror,

a thing  j to be hissed at forever.

 k Everyone who passes by it is horrified

 l and shakes his head.

17[†]  m Like the east wind  n I will scatter them

before the enemy.

 o I will show them my back, not my face,

in the day of their calamity.”

18[†]Then they said,  p “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah,  q for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.  r Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19[†] Hear me, O LORD,

and  s listen to the voice of my adversaries.

20  t Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet  u they have dug a pit for my life.

 v Remember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

21[†] Therefore  w deliver up their children to famine;

give them over to the power of the sword;

let their wives become childless  x and widowed.

May their men meet death by pestilence,

their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.

22  y May a cry be heard from their houses,

when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!

For  u they have dug a pit to take me

 z and laid snares for my feet.

23[†] Yet  a you, O LORD, know

all their plotting to kill me.

 b 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.