Jeremiah 18:1-17
The Potter and the Clay

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

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2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.

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3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

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4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make [it].

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5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

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6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay [is] in the potter’s hand, so [are] ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

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7 [At what] instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy [it];

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8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

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9 And [at what] instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant [it];

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10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

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11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

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12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

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13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

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14 Will [a man] leave the snow of Lebanon [which cometh] from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

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15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways [from] the ancient paths, to walk in paths, [in] a way not cast up;

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16 To make their land desolate, [and] a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.

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17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

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