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The Potter’s Clay Idols

For the potter, laboriously working the soft earth,
    molds for our service each single article:
He fashions out of the same clay
    both the vessels that serve for clean purposes
    and their opposites, all alike;
As to what shall be the use of each vessel of either class
    the worker in clay is the judge.(A)

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Chapter 18

The Potter’s Vessel.[a] This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Arise and go down to the potter’s house; there you will hear my word. I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the vessel of clay he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making another vessel of whatever sort he pleased.(A) Then the word of the Lord came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done?—oracle of the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.(B)

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Footnotes

  1. 18:1–12 The lesson of the potter is that God has the power to destroy or restore, changing his plans accordingly as these nations disobey him or fulfill his will. Cf. Jon 3:10.

20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to talk back to God?(A) Will what is made say to its maker, “Why have you created me so?” 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for a noble purpose and another for an ignoble one?

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