Jeremiah 18:3-16

Holman Christian Standard Bible

³So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel.^[a] ⁴But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.^(A)

⁵The word of the Lord came to me: ⁶“House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel.^(B) ⁷At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.^(C) ⁸However, if that nation I have made an announcement about turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.^(D) ⁹At another time I announce that I will build and plant a nation or a kingdom.^(E) ¹⁰However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.^(F) ¹¹So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem: This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.^(G) ¹²But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless.^(H) We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

Deluded Israel

¹³Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

Ask among the nations,
Who has heard things like these?
Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.^(I)
¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags?
Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?
¹⁵Yet My people have forgotten Me.^(J)
They burn incense to false idols
that make them stumble in their ways
on the ancient roads^(K)
and walk on new paths, not the highway.
¹⁶They have made their land a horror,^(L)
a perpetual object of scorn;^[b]^(M)
everyone who passes by it will be horrified^(N)
and shake his head.^(O)