So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.Then the word of the Lord came to me.He said,“ Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord.“ Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.So the Lord said,“ I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created— and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground— for I regret that I have made them.”