1. The Word which was to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
2. Rise up and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My Words.
3. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was working a work on the wheel.
4. And the vessel that he made in clay was ruined in the hand of the potter. So repeating he made it, another vessel, as it seemed good in the potter's eyes to make it.
5. And the Word of Jehovah was to me, saying,
6. O house of Israel, can I not do to you as this potter? says Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
7. The instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, or to break down, or to destroy;
8. if that nation against whom I have spoken will turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to it.
9. And the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10. if it does evil in My eye, not to obey My voice, then I will repent of the good which I had said to do good to it.
11. Now then, please speak to the men of Judah and to those living in Jerusalem, saying, So says Jehovah, Behold, I am forming evil against you, and devising a plan against you. Now each one turn from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12. And they say, It is hopeless. For we will walk after our own thoughts, and we will each one do according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.
13. So Jehovah says this: Ask now among the nations, Who has heard things like these? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14. Does the snow of Lebanon cease from the rock of the field? Or are the cold flowing waters that come from another place uprooted?
15. But My people have forgotten Me. They have burned incense to vain idols; and they have caused them to stumble in their ways, from the old paths, to walk in bypaths, not on the highway;
16. to make their land a desolation, a hissing forever. Everyone who passes by will be amazed and will shake his head.
17. I will scatter them like an east wind before the enemy; I will make them see the back, and not the face in the day of their calamity.
18. Then they said, Come and let us plot schemes against Jeremiah. For the Law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor word from the prophet. Come and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not attend to any of his words.
19. O Jehovah, pay attention to me, and pay attention to the voice of my foes.
20. Should evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember, I stood before You to speak good concerning them, to turn Your wrath from them.
21. So give their sons to the famine, and make them run onto the hand of the sword. And let their wives be bereaved, and be widows, and let their men be the slain of death, their young men be those struck by the sword in battle.
22. Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring a raiding band on them. For they have dug a pit to seize me, and have hidden snares for my feet.
23. Yet, O Jehovah, You know all their counsel to death against me. Do not atone for their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from Your face, but let them be those made to stumble before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.