Beginning
The Potter and the Clay
18 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,[a] 2 “Stand up and go down to the house of the potter, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the house of the potter and look, there he was doing work at the potter’s wheels. 4 And the vessel that he was making with the clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so he made again[b] another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make.
5 And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,[c] 6 “Like this potter, am I not able to do to you, O house of Israel?” declares[d] Yahweh. “Look, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 One moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to uproot, and to tear down, and to destroy it.[e] 8 But if that nation turns back from its evil that I have threatened against it, then I will relent concerning the disaster that I planned to do to it. 9 And the next moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to build, and to plant it.[f] 10 But if it does evil in my sight, to not listen to my voice, then I will relent concerning the good that I said I would do to it.
11 “So now then, say, please, to the people[g] of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,[h] ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am preparing evil against you, and I am planning a plan against you. Please turn back, each one from his evil way, and walk rightly in your ways and your deeds.”’ 12 But they will say, ‘It is hopeless, for we will go after our own plans, and each one of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13 “Therefore thus says Yahweh,
‘Please ask among the nations, “Who has heard the like of this?”[i]
The virgin of Israel has done something very horrible.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave from the crags[j] of Sirion?
Or are the cold waters flowing from distant mountains dried up?
15 But my people have forgotten me.
They make smoke offerings to the idols,[k]
and they caused them to stumble in their ways, the ancient ways,
to go into bypaths,[l] not one that is built up.
16 To make their land a horror,
an object of whistling for eternity.
All who pass by it will be appalled,
and he will shake his head.
17 Like the wind from the east
I will scatter them before[m] the enemy.
I will show them my back and not my face
in the day of their disaster.’”
Jeremiah’s Imprecatory Prayer
18 Then they said, “Come and let us plan plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will not be lost from the priest, nor advice from the wise man, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us bring charges against him,[n] and let us not listen attentively to any of his words.”
19 Listen attentively to me, O Yahweh,
and listen to the voice of my opponents.
20 Should good be repaid in place of evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember my standing before you[o] to speak good for them,
to avert your wrath from them.
21 Therefore[p] give their children to the famine,
and hand them over to the power[q] of the sword,
and let their wives be bereaved and widows,
and let their men be killed by death,
their young men struck dead
by the sword in the battle.
22 Let a cry for help be heard from their houses
when you suddenly bring upon them the raiding band,
for they have dug a pit to catch me,
and they have fixed secretly a trap for my feet.
23 But you, O Yahweh, you know
all their plans of assassination against me.[r]
You must not make atonement for their iniquity,
and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from before you.[s]
But let them be overthrown before you.[t]
Deal with them in the time of your anger.
The Valley of the Slaughter
19 Thus said Yahweh, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people, and some of the leaders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Gate of the Potsherd, and proclaim there the words that I speak to you. 3 And you shall say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “Look, I am about to bring disaster upon this place so that everyone who hears it,[u] his ears will ring. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and they have defaced this place, and they have made smoke offerings in it to other gods whom they have not known, they, nor their ancestors,[v] nor the kings of Judah, and they have filled up this place with the blood of the innocent, 5 and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire, burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I ordered not, and it did not come to my mind.[w]
6 “Therefore[x] look, days are about to come,” declares[y] Yahweh, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but[z] the Valley of the Slaughter. 7 And I will lay waste the plans[aa] of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will bring them to ruin by the sword before[ab] their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life, and I will give their dead bodies[ac] as food to the birds[ad] of heaven and to the animals[ae] of the earth. 8 And I will make this city a horror, and an object of hissing, everyone who passes by it will be appalled, and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress which their enemies and those who seek their life inflict on them.”’
10 “Then you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you. 11 And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, so that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury until there is no room to bury.[af] 12 Thus will I do to this place,” declares[ag] Yahweh, “and to its inhabitants, to make this city like Topheth. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean like the place of Topheth, all the houses where they made smoke offerings upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and where they poured out libations to other gods.”’”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh and said to all the people, 15 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Look, I am about to bring to this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their neck to not hear my words.’”
A Message for Pashhur
20 Now Pashhur, the son of Immer, the priest who was officer in charge in the temple of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the temple of Yahweh. 3 And then[ah] on the next day, when Pashhur brought Jeremiah out from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Yahweh will not call your name Pashhur, but[ai] Terror From All Around. 4 For thus says Yahweh, ‘Look, I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will be seeing it.[aj] And all Judah I will give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon, and he will strike them with the sword. 5 And I will give all the wealth of this city, and all its acquisitions, and all its precious items, and all of the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, and they will seize them, and they will bring them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all those who live in your house will go into captivity, and you will go to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely.[ak]’”
Jeremiah’s Lament
7 You have persuaded me, O Yahweh, and I was persuaded.
You have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long.
Everyone[al] is mocking me.
8 For as often as[am] I speak,
I must cry out violence and destruction.
I must shout, for the word of Yahweh has become for me
a disgrace and derision all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not mention him
and I will no longer speak in his name,”
then it becomes in my heart like a fire burning,
locked up in my bones,
and I struggle to contain it,[an]
and I am not able.
10 For I hear the rumor of many,
“Terror is from all around, denounce him,[ao]
yes, let us denounce him!”
All my close friends[ap] are watchers of my stumbling,
saying, “perhaps he can be persuaded,
and we can prevail over him,
and we can take our revenge on him.”
11 But Yahweh is with me like a powerful warrior.
Therefore[aq] my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.
They will be very ashamed, for they will not achieve success.
Their everlasting insult[ar] will not be forgotten.
12 Yet, O Yahweh of hosts, who tests the righteous,
who sees the heart[as] and the mind,[at]
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have revealed my legal case.
13 Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh,
for he has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day on which I was born,
let not the day on which my mother gave birth to me be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
saying,[au] “A child is born to you, a son!”
and he made him very glad.
16 And let that man be like the cities
that Yahweh demolished without regret,
and let him hear a cry for help in the morning,
and an alarm at the time of noon.
17 Because he did not kill me in the womb,
so that my mother would have been for me my grave,
and her womb would be pregnant forever.
18 Why[av] did I come out from the womb,
to see toil, and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?[aw]
A Message for Zedekiah
21 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,[ax] 2 “Please inquire of Yahweh on behalf of us, for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon is fighting against us. Perhaps Yahweh will do with us according to all his miraculous acts, so that he may go up from against us.”
3 Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah: 4 ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: “Look, I am about to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands,[ay] with which you are fighting against them, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the center of this city. 5 And I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand, and with strong arm, and in anger,[az] and in fury, and in great wrath. 6 And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both humankind and animal; by a great plague they will die. 7 And afterward,”[ba] declares[bb] Yahweh, “I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who remain in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives, and he will strike them with the edge[bc] of the sword. He will not take pity on them, and he will not have compassion, nor will he show compassion.”’
The Way of Life and the Way of Death
8 “And to this people you shall say, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am setting before you[bd] the way of life and the way of death. 9 He who stays in this city will die by the sword, or by the famine, or by the plague. And he who goes out and goes over to the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you will live, and his life will be to him as booty. 10 For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good,” declares[be] Yahweh. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.”’
A Series of Messages for the House of the King of Judah
11 “And to the house of the king of Judah, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, 12 O house of David, thus says Yahweh,
“Execute judgment in the morning, justice,
and deliver the one who has been seized
from the hand of the oppressor,
lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and it burns,
and there is no one who quenches it[bf]
because of the evil of your deeds.
13 Look, I am against you,
O inhabitants[bg] of the valley,
O rock of the plain,” declares[bh] Yahweh;
“you who say, ‘Who can descend against us,
or who can enter into our hiding place?’
14 And I will punish you
according to the fruit of your deeds,” declares[bi] Yahweh,
“And I will kindle a fire in its forest,
and it will devour all its surroundings.”’”
22 Thus says Yahweh: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and you must speak this word there. 2 And you must say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter through these gates. 3 Thus says Yahweh, “Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been seized from the hand of the oppressor. And you must not oppress the immigrant, the orphan, and the widow. And you must not shed innocent blood in this place. 4 And if you indeed obey this word, then kings who sit for David on his throne will enter through the gates of this house, riding in chariots[bj] and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 5 But if you do not obey these words, I swear by myself,” declares[bk] Yahweh, “that this house will become a site of ruins.”’”
6 For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah,
“You are like Gilead to me,
like the head of the Lebanon.
Surely[bl] I will make you a desert,[bm]
like cities that are not inhabited.
7 And I will consecrate against you destroyers,
everyone with his weapons,
and they will cut down your choicest cedars,[bn]
and cast them[bo] on the fire.
8 And many nations will pass by this city and they will say each one to his neighbor, ‘Why[bp] has Yahweh done in this manner to this great city?’ 9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, and bowed down in worship to other gods, and served them.’”
10 You must not weep for the dead person,
and you must not show sympathy for him.
Weep bitterly for the one who goes away,
for he will not return, or see the land of his birth again.
11 For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned as king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: “He will not return here again. 12 But in the place where they have deported him, there he will die, and he will not see this land again.
13 Woe to the one who builds his house without righteousness,
and his upper rooms without justice.
His fellow countryman, he works for nothing,
and he does not give to him his wages.[bq]
14 Who says ‘I will build for myself
a spacious house with large upper rooms,’
and he cuts windows for it,
and it is[br] paneled with cedar,
and he paints it[bs] with vermilion.
15 Do you reign as king because you are competing in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink,
and he did justice and righteousness,
then it was well with him?
16 He judged the legal cause of the needy and the poor,
and then it was well.
Is that not what it means to know me?[bt]” declares[bu] Yahweh.
17 “But there is nothing in your eyes and your heart
except[bv] your unlawful gain,
and on shedding the blood of the innocent,
and on committing oppression and extortion.”
18 Therefore[bw] thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah:
“They will not lament for him,
‘Alas, my brother,’ or ‘Alas, sister.’
They will not lament for him,
‘Alas, lord,’ or ‘alas, his majesty.’
19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey.
He will be[bx] dragged away and thrown outside[by] the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
and in Bashan lift up your voice,
and cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers are shattered.
21 I spoke to you in the times you were secure,[bz]
and you said, ‘I will not listen!’
This was your way from your youth,
for you have not obeyed my voice.
22 All your shepherds will shepherd the wind,
and your lovers will go into captivity.
Yes, then you will be ashamed and humiliated
because of all your wickedness.
23 Inhabitants[ca] of Lebanon,
nestled among the cedars,
how you will groan when labor pains come to you,
fear and pain as the woman who gives birth.
24 “As I live,” declares[cb] Yahweh, “surely if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were the seal on my right hand, surely from there I would wrench you off. 25 And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those from whom you are frightened by their presence, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will throw you and your mother who gave birth to you to another country where you were not born, and there you will die. 27 As for the land to which they are longing[cc] to return, they will not return.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered vessel?
Or a vessel in which there is no delight?
Why are he and his offspring thrown far,
and cast away to the land that they do not know?”
29 O land, land, land, hear the word of Yahweh. 30 Thus says Yahweh:
“Record this man as childless,
a man who will not succeed in his days,
for no man from his offspring will succeed him,[cd]
sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”
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