Jeremiah 18:1-10

Easy-to-Read Version

The Potter and the Clay

18 This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Jeremiah, go down to the potter’s house. I will give you my message there.”

³ So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working with clay at the wheel. ⁴ He was making a pot from clay. But there was something wrong with the pot. So the potter used that clay to make another pot. With his hands he shaped the pot the way he wanted it to be.

⁵ Then this message from the Lord came to me: ⁶ “Family of Israel, you know that I can do the same thing with you. You are like the clay in the potter’s hands, and I am the potter.” This message is from the Lord. ⁷ “There may come a time when I will speak about a nation or a kingdom that I will pull up by its roots or tear down and destroy it. ⁸ But if the people of that nation change their hearts and lives and stop doing evil things, I will change my mind and not bring on them the disaster I planned. ⁹ There may come another time when I speak about a nation that I will build up or plant. ¹⁰ But if I see that nation doing evil things and not obeying me, I will think again about the good I had planned to do for them.