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Jeremiah 18
ESV

Jeremiah18

The Potter and the Clay
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2“Arise, and go down to 18:2 ch. 19:1; 1 Chr. 4:23; [Zech. 11:13]the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear18:2 Or will cause you to hear my words.”
3So I went down to 18:3 ch. 19:1; 1 Chr. 4:23; [Zech. 11:13]the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel.
4And the vessel he was making of clay was 18:4 ch. 13:7spoiled in the potter’s hand, and 18:4 [Rom. 9:21]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, 18:6 Isa. 45:9; See Rom. 9:20-24can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. 18:6 Job 10:9; Isa. 64:8Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
7If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will 18:7 ch. 1:10; 42:10pluck up and break down and destroy it,
8and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, 18:8 Ezek. 18:21turns from its evil, 18:8 ch. 26:3, 13, 19; Judg. 2:18; Jonah 3:10I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
9And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will 18:9 [See ver. 7above]build and plant it,
10and 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.
11Now, 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. 18:11 ch. 35:15; 2 Kgs. 17:13; Jonah 3:8Return, every one from his evil way, and 18:11 ch. 7:3; 25:5; 35:15amend your ways and your deeds.’
12“But they say, 18:12 ch. 2:25‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to 18:12 See ch. 3:17the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13“Therefore thus says the Lord:
18:13 ch. 2:10, 11Ask among the nations,
Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done 18:13 ch. 5:30a very horrible thing.
14Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion?18:14 Hebrew of the field
Do the mountain waters run dry,18:14 Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up
the cold flowing streams?
1518:15 ch. 2:13, 32; 17:13But my people have forgotten me;
they make offerings to 18:15 ch. 2:5; 10:15; 16:19false gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
18:15 ch. 6:16in the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
18:15 [Isa. 57:14]not the highway,
16making their land 18:16 ch. 19:8; 25:9, 11, 18; 49:13, 17; 50:13; 51:37; 2 Chr. 29:8a horror,
a thing 18:16 ch. 19:8; 25:9, 11, 18; 49:13, 17; 50:13; 51:37; 2 Chr. 29:8to be hissed at forever.
18:16 ch. 50:13; Lam. 2:15Everyone who passes by it is horrified
18:16 Job 16:4; Ps. 22:7; Matt. 27:39and shakes his head.
1718:17 Gen. 41:6, 23, 27; Ex. 10:13; Job 27:21; Ps. 48:7; Ezek. 27:26; Hos. 13:15; Jonah 4:8Like the east wind 18:17 ch. 13:24I will scatter them
before the enemy.
18:17 [ch. 2:27]I will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”

18Then they said, 18:18 ch. 11:19“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, 18:18 [ch. 2:8; 5:13, 31; 6:13] for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. 18:18 ch. 9:3, 8; Job 5:21; [Ps. 31:20]Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19Hear me, O Lord,
and 18:19 Ps. 35:1; Isa. 49:25listen to the voice of my adversaries.
2018:20 Ps. 35:12Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet 18:20 Ps. 35:7; 57:6; 119:85they have dug a pit for my life.
18:20 [Neh. 13:14]Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21Therefore 18:21 Ps. 109:10deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless 18:21 Ps. 109:9and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
2218:22 [ch. 20:16] May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For 18:22 [See ver. 20above] they have dug a pit to take me
18:22 Ps. 140:5and laid snares for my feet.
23Yet 18:23 [Ps. 35:22] you, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
18:23 Neh. 4:5Forgive 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.