Jeremiah 18:1-17
Expanded Bible
The Potter and the Clay
18 This is the word the Lord spoke to Jeremiah: 2 “Get up and go down to the potter’s house, and I will ·give you my message there [L make you hear my words].” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the potter’s wheel. 4 He was using his hands to make a pot from clay, but something went wrong with it. So he used that clay to make another pot the way he wanted it to be.
5 Then the Lord spoke his word to me: 6 “·Family [L House] of Israel, can’t I do the same thing with you?” says the Lord. “You are in my hands like the clay in the potter’s hands. 7 There may come a time when I will ·speak about [declare concerning] a nation or a kingdom that I will ·pull [pluck] up by its roots or that I will ·pull [tear] down to destroy it [1:10]. 8 But if the people of that nation ·stop doing the evil they have done [turn back/repent from its evil concerning which I have spoken], I will ·change my mind [repent] and not carry out my plans to bring ·disaster to [evil on] them. 9 There may come another time when I will ·speak about a [declare concerning that] nation that I will build up and plant. 10 But if ·I see it doing evil [L it does evil in my eyes] by not ·obeying [listening to] me, I will ·change my mind [repent] and not carry out my plans to do good for them.
11 “·So [Now], say this to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am ·preparing [shaping] ·disaster [evil] for you and making plans against you. ·So stop doing evil [L Turn away from your evil way/path]. ·Change [Improve/Amend] your ·ways [paths] and ·do what is right [L your actions].’ 12 But they [C the people of Judah] will answer, ‘It won’t do any good to try! We will ·continue to do what we want [L go after our plans]. Each of us will do what his stubborn, evil heart wants!’”
13 So this is what the Lord says:
“Ask ·the people in other nations this question [L among the nations]:
‘·Have you ever [L Who has] heard anything like this?’
The ·people [L virgin daughter] of Israel have done a horrible thing.
14 ·The [L Does the…?] snow of Lebanon
·never melts from [ever leave the] the rocks of ·the fields [L or Sirion; C another name for Mount Hermon].
Its cool, ·flowing [L foreign; strange] streams
do not ·dry up [L get plucked up].
15 But my people have forgotten me.
They burn incense to ·worthless [useless; meaningless] idols
and ·have stumbled [L they make them stumble] in ·what they do [L their ways/paths]
and in the ·old ways of their ancestors [L ancient ways].
They walk along back roads
·and on poor [L ways/paths that are not] highways.
16 So ·Judah’s country [L their land] will become an ·empty desert [wasteland; desolation].
People will not stop ·making fun of [L hissing at] it.
They will shake their heads as they pass by;
they will be shocked at how the country was destroyed.
17 Like a strong east wind,
I will scatter them [C the people of Judah] before their enemies.
·At that awful time [L In the day of their calamity] ·they will not see me coming to help them;
they will see me leaving [L I will show them my back and not my face].”
Jeremiah 18:1-17
New American Standard Bible
The Potter and the Clay
18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Arise and (A)go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6 “Am I not able, house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the (B)clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel. 7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to (C)uproot it, to tear it down, or to destroy it; 8 (D)if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will (E)relent of the disaster that I planned to bring on it. 9 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to (F)build up or to plant it; 10 if it does (G)evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will (H)relent of the good with which I said [a]that I would bless it. 11 So now, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am (I)forming a disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Now (J)turn back, each of you from his evil way, and [b]correct your ways and your deeds!”’ 12 But (K)they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will [c]persist in the (L)stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13 “Therefore this is what the Lord says:
‘(M)Just ask among the nations,
Who ever heard anything like [d]this?
The (N)virgin of Israel
Has done a most (O)appalling thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave the rock of the open country alone?
Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever dried up?
15 For (P)My people have forgotten Me,
(Q)They burn incense [e]to worthless gods.
And they [f]have stumbled in their ways,
In the (R)ancient roads,
To walk on paths,
Not on a (S)highway,
16 To make their land a (T)desolation,
An object of perpetual (U)hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And (V)shake his head.
17 Like an (W)east wind I will (X)scatter them
Before the enemy;
I will [g]show them (Y)My back and not My face
(Z)In the day of their disaster.’”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 18:10 Lit to do it good
- Jeremiah 18:11 Lit make good
- Jeremiah 18:12 Lit do the
- Jeremiah 18:13 Lit these
- Jeremiah 18:15 Lit to worthlessness
- Jeremiah 18:15 As in ancient versions; MT caused them to
- Jeremiah 18:17 As in ancient versions; MT look them in the back and not in the face
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New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
