God the potter

18 Jeremiah received the Lord’s word: ² Go down to the potter’s house, and I’ll give you instructions about what to do there. ³ So I went down to the potter’s house; he was working on the potter’s wheel. ⁴ But the piece he was making was flawed while still in his hands, so the potter started on another, as seemed best to him. ⁵ Then the Lord’s word came to me: ⁶ House of Israel, can’t I deal with you like this potter, declares the Lord? Like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine, house of Israel! ⁷ At any time I may announce that I will dig up, pull down, and destroy a nation or kingdom; ⁸ but if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I’ll relent and not carry out the harm I intended for it. ⁹ At the same time, I may announce that I will build and plant a nation or kingdom; ¹⁰ but if that nation displeases and disobeys me, then I’ll relent and not carry out the good I intended for it. ¹¹ Now say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem: This is what the Lord says: I am a potter preparing a disaster for you; I’m working out a plan against you. So each one of you, turn from your evil ways; reform your ways and your actions. ¹² But they said, “What’s the use! We will follow our own plans and act according to our own willful, evil hearts.”

Broken beyond repair

19 The Lord proclaims: Go buy a clay jar from a potter in the presence of the elders of the people and the priests. ² Then go out to the Ben-hinnom Valley at the entrance of the gate called Broken Pots and proclaim there the words I will tell you. ³ Listen to the Lord’s word, you kings of Judah and those of you living in Jerusalem: This is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: I’m going to bring such disaster upon this place that it will shock all who hear of it. ⁴ They have deserted me and degraded this place into a shrine for other gods, which neither they nor their ancestors nor Judah’s kings have ever known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ⁵ Yes, they have built shrines to Baal, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, although I never commanded or ordered such a thing, nor did it ever cross my mind.

⁶ So now the time is coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or Ben-hinnom Valley but Carnage Valley. ⁷ I will foil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place and will have them fall in battle before their enemies, before those who seek their lives. I will give their corpses as food to the birds and the wild animals. ⁸ I will make this city something that sounds horrible; all who pass by it will be shocked at its pain. ⁹ And when their enemies lay siege to the city, seeking their lives, they will resort in desperation to eating the flesh of their sons and daughters, and to devouring the flesh of their neighbors.

¹⁰ Then you should shatter the clay jar in the sight of the people who are with you, ¹¹ and you should say to them: This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says: Just as one smashes the potter’s piece beyond repair, so I will smash this people and this city. And they will bury the dead in Topheth until there’s no room left. ¹² That is what I will do to this place and its residents, declares the Lord: I will make this city like Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and those of Judah’s kings will become as foul as Topheth—all the houses on whose roofs they made offerings to the heavenly force and poured out drink offerings to other gods.