11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. (A)Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings (B)good.” ’ ”

God’s Warning Rejected

12 And they said, (C)“That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one [a]obey the (D)dictates[b] of his evil heart.”

13 Therefore thus says the Lord:

(E)“Ask now among the Gentiles,
Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done (F)a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man [c]leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

15 “Because My people have forgotten (G)Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the (H)ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
16 To make their land (I)desolate and a perpetual (J)hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
17 (K)I will scatter them (L)as with an east wind before the enemy;
(M)I will [d]show them the back and not the face
In the day of their calamity.”

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 18:12 Lit. do
  2. Jeremiah 18:12 stubbornness or imagination
  3. Jeremiah 18:14 forsake
  4. Jeremiah 18:17 So with LXX, Syr., Tg., Vg.; MT look them in

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