Jeremiah 18 — BSB
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The Potter and the Clay
18Verse 1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:Verse 2“Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will give you My message.”Verse 3So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the wheel.Verse 4But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.Verse 5Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,Verse 6“O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.Verse 7At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed.Verse 8But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.Verse 9And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom,Verse 10and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it.Verse 11Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’Verse 12But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”Verse 13Therefore this is what the LORD says:“Inquire among the nations:Who has ever heard things like these?
Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.Verse 14Does the snow of Lebanonever leave its rocky slopes?Or do its cool waters flowing from a distanceever run dry?Verse 15Yet My people have forgotten Me.They burn incense to worthless idols
that make them stumble in their ways,leaving the ancient roadsto walk on rutted bypaths
instead of on the highway.Verse 16They have made their land a desolation,a perpetual object of scorn;all who pass by will be appalledand shake their heads.Verse 17I will scatter them before the enemylike the east wind.I will show them My back and not My facein the day of their calamity.”
Another Plot against Jeremiah
Verse 18Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”Verse 19Attend to me, O LORD.Hear what my accusers are saying!Verse 20Should good be repaid with evil?Yet they have dug a pit for me.Remember how I stood before Youto speak good on their behalf,to turn Your wrath from them.Verse 21Therefore, hand their children over to famine;pour out the power of the sword upon them.Let their wives become childless and widowed;let their husbands be slain by disease,
their young men struck down by the sword in battle.Verse 22Let a cry be heard from their houseswhen You suddenly bring raiders against them,for they have dug a pit to capture meand have hidden snares for my feet.Verse 23But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me.Do not wipe out their guilt
or blot out their sin from Your sight.Let them be overthrown before You;deal with them in the time of Your anger.