Jeremiah 18
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 “Get up and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”
3 I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at the wheel.
4 The vessel he was making from clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another vessel, as seemed right to the potter.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
6 “House of Israel, can’t I do with you what this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Look, like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
7 At one moment I may speak about a nation or a kingdom, to uproot, tear down, and destroy it.
8 But if that nation turns from the evil I spoke against, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to bring on it.
9 And at another moment I may speak about a nation or a kingdom, to build it up and plant it.
10 But if it does what is evil in my sight and does not listen to my voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do for it.
11 Now tell the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the LORD says: “Look, I am preparing disaster against you and making a plan against you. Turn back, each of you, from your evil way, and make your ways and deeds better.”’
12 But they will say, ‘There’s no use. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil heart.’”
13 So this is what the LORD says: “Ask among the nations: Who has ever heard of anything like this? Virgin Israel has done something utterly horrific.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the rocks of the open country? Do the cold, flowing waters from distant places ever dry up?
15 But my people have forgotten me. They burn incense to what is worthless. They have made them stumble in their ways, on the ancient paths, and walk along side roads, on a road not made level.
16 They have made their land a horror, an object of lasting scorn. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes their head.
17 I will scatter them before the enemy like an east wind. I will show them my back, not my face, on the day of their disaster.”
18 Then they said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, because the law will not disappear from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let’s strike him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.”
19 Pay attention to me, LORD, and hear the voice of those who contend with me.
20 Should good be repaid with evil? For they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak well of them, to turn your anger away from them.
21 So give their children over to famine, and hand them over to the sword. May their wives be childless and widowed; may their men be put to death, and their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
22 May a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring a raiding band against them, because they have dug a pit to capture me and hidden traps for my feet.
23 But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their guilt or wipe away their sin from your sight. May they stumble before you; act against them in the time of your anger.
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