Jeremiah 18

1This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2“Get up and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working at the wheel. 4If the pot he was shaping from the clay went wrong in the potter’s hand, he would make it over into another pot, whatever seemed best to him.

5Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6“House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? declares the LORD. As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in my hand, house of Israel.

7At one time I may speak about a nation or a kingdom, that I will uproot it, tear it down and destroy it, 8but that nation I have spoken against turns from its evil, then I will relent and not bring on it the disaster I had planned.

9And at another time I may speak about a nation or a kingdom, that I will build it and plant it, 10but it does what is evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will relent and not do the good I had promised it.

11So now, say to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem, ‘The LORD says this: I am shaping disaster for you and making plans against you. Turn back, every one of you, from your evil way, and change your ways and your actions for the better.’ 12But they will say, ‘It is no use! We will follow our own plans; each of us will act in the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’”

13Therefore the LORD says this: Ask among the nations, who has ever heard of such things? The virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing. 14Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky heights? Are the cold streams that flow from far away ever cut off? 15Yet my people have forgotten me; they make offerings of incense to worthless gods, which have made them stumble in their ways, on the ancient roads, so that they walk on side paths, on a road that is not built up, 16making their land a horror, an object of scorn forever; all who pass by it will be appalled and shake their heads. 17Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy; I will show them my back, not my face, on the day of their disaster.

18Then they said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah. Instruction will never be lost to the priest, or counsel to the wise, or the word to the prophet. Come, let us attack him with words and pay no attention to anything he says.” 19Pay attention to me, LORD, and hear what my accusers are saying. 20Is evil the right return for good? Yet they have dug a pit to take my life. Remember how I stood before you and spoke up for their good, to turn your wrath away from them. 21So hand their children over to famine; give them up to the power of the sword. Let their wives be left childless and widowed, their men be killed by plague, and their young men be struck down by the sword in battle. 22Let screams ring out from their houses when you bring raiders on them without warning, for they have dug a pit to catch me and hidden traps for my feet. 23But you, LORD, know all their plans to kill me. Do not forgive their guilt or wipe out their sin from your sight. Let them be brought down before you; act against them in the time of your anger.