The Bible

23 verses

Jeremiah Chapter 18

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from ForeverOne, saying, ²Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.

³Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

⁴When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵Then the word of ForeverOne came to me, saying, ⁶House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says ForeverOne. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

⁷At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; ⁸if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

⁹At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; ¹⁰if they do what is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

¹¹Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says ForeverOne: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

¹²But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³Therefore thus says ForeverOne: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

¹⁴Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

¹⁵For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up; ¹⁶to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

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

¹⁸Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

¹⁹Give heed to me, ForeverOne, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.

²⁰Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men struck of the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

²³Yet, ForeverOne, you know all their counsel against me to kill me; don't forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger.