The heart is deceitful above all things,
    and desperately sick;
    who can understand it?
10 (A)“I the Lord search the heart
    (B)and test the mind,[a]
(C)to give every man according to his ways,
    according to the fruit of his deeds.”

11 Like the (D)partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
    so is (E)he who gets riches but not by justice;
(F)in the midst of his days they will leave him,
    (G)and at his end he will be a fool.

12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
    is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, (H)the hope of Israel,
    (I)all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you[b] (J)shall be written in the earth,
    for (K)they have forsaken (L)the Lord, the fountain of living water.

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

14 (M)Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
    save me, and I shall be saved,
    for (N)you are my praise.
15 (O)Behold, they say to me,
    “Where is the word of the Lord?
    Let it come!”
16 I have not run away from being your shepherd,
    nor have I desired the day of sickness.
(P)You know (Q)what came out of my lips;
    it was before your face.
17 Be not a terror to me;
    (R)you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 (S)Let those be put to shame who persecute me,
    but let me not be put to shame;
(T)let them be dismayed,
    but let me not be dismayed;
(U)bring upon them the day of disaster;
    destroy them with double destruction!

Keep the Sabbath Holy

19 Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which (V)the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, (W)you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and (X)do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath (Y)or do any work, but (Z)keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23 Yet (AA)they did not listen or incline their ear, (AB)but stiffened their neck, that they (AC)might not hear and receive instruction.

24 “‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and (AD)bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but (AE)keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then (AF)there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. 26 And people shall come from (AG)the cities of Judah (AH)and the places around Jerusalem, (AI)from the land of Benjamin, (AJ)from the Shephelah, from the hill country, (AK)and from (AL)the Negeb, bringing (AM)burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and (AN)bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not listen to me, to (AO)keep the Sabbath day holy, (AP)and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will (AQ)kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall (AR)devour the palaces of Jerusalem and (AS)shall not be quenched.’”

The Potter and the Clay

18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to (AT)the potter's house, and there I will let you hear[c] my words.” So I went down to (AU)the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was (AV)spoiled in the potter's hand, and (AW)he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, (AX)can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. (AY)Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will (AZ)pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, (BA)turns from its evil, (BB)I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will (BC)build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. (BD)Return, every one from his evil way, and (BE)amend your ways and your deeds.’

12 “But they say, (BF)‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to (BG)the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
(BH)Ask among the nations,
    Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
    has done (BI)a very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
    the crags of Sirion?[d]
Do the mountain waters run dry,[e]
    the cold flowing streams?
15 (BJ)But my people have forgotten me;
    they make offerings to (BK)false gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
    (BL)in the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
    (BM)not the highway,
16 making their land (BN)a horror,
    a thing (BO)to be hissed at forever.
(BP)Everyone who passes by it is horrified
    (BQ)and shakes his head.
17 (BR)Like the east wind (BS)I will scatter them
    before the enemy.
(BT)I will show them my back, not my face,
    in the day of their calamity.”

18 Then they said, (BU)“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, (BV)for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. (BW)Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O Lord,
    and (BX)listen to the voice of my adversaries.
20 (BY)Should good be repaid with evil?
    Yet (BZ)they have dug a pit for my life.
(CA)Remember how I stood before you
    to speak good for them,
    to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore (CB)deliver up their children to famine;
    give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless (CC)and widowed.
    May their men meet death by pestilence,
    their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 (CD)May a cry be heard from their houses,
    when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For (CE)they have dug a pit to take me
    (CF)and laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet (CG)you, O Lord, know
    all their plotting to kill me.
(CH)Forgive not their iniquity,
    nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
    deal with them in the time of your anger.

The Broken Flask

19 Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy (CI)a potter's earthenware (CJ)flask, and take some of (CK)the elders of the people and some of (CL)the elders of the priests, and go out (CM)to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. You shall say, (CN)‘Hear the word of the Lord, (CO)O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that (CP)the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. (CQ)Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; (CR)and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, (CS)and have built the high places of Baal (CT)to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, (CU)which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— therefore, (CV)behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or (CW)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. And in this place (CX)I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, (CY)and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. (CZ)I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city (DA)a horror, (DB)a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 17:10 Hebrew kidneys
  2. Jeremiah 17:13 Hebrew me
  3. Jeremiah 18:2 Or will cause you to hear
  4. Jeremiah 18:14 Hebrew of the field
  5. Jeremiah 18:14 Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up

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