Old/New Testament

18 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, ² “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.”

³ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making something on the wheels. ⁴ When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, ⁶ “House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter?” says Yahweh. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. ⁷ At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it, ⁸ if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. ⁹ At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, ¹⁰ if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit them.

¹¹ “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Yahweh says: “Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a plan against you. Everyone return from his evil way now, and amend your ways and your doings.”’ ¹² But they say, ‘It is in vain; for we will walk after our own plans, and we will each follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

¹³ Therefore Yahweh says:

¹⁸ Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let’s strike him with the tongue, and let’s not give heed to any of his words.”

19 Thus said Yahweh, “Go, and buy a potter’s earthen container, and take some of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests; ² and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I will tell you. ³ Say, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle. ⁴ Because they have forsaken me, and have defiled this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods that they didn’t know—they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah—and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ⁵ and have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I didn’t command, nor speak, which didn’t even enter into my mind. ⁶ Therefore, behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that this place will no more be called ‘Topheth’, nor ‘The Valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’.

⁷ “‘“I will make the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem void in this place. I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth. ⁸ I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. ⁹ I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. They will each eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, will distress them.”’

¹⁰ “Then you shall break the container in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹ and shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “Even so I will break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that can’t be made whole again. They will bury in Topheth until there is no place to bury. ¹² This is what I will do to this place,” says Yahweh, “and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, will be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the army of the sky and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”

¹⁴ Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of Yahweh’s house, and said to all the people: ¹⁵ “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.’”

3 But know this: that in the last days, grievous times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding a form of godliness but having denied its power. Turn away from these, also. ⁶ For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected. ⁹ But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be.

¹⁰ But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, ¹¹ persecutions, and sufferings—those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions. The Lord delivered me out of them all. ¹² Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. ¹³ But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴ But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. ¹⁵ From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ Every Scripture is God-breathed and^[a] profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.