Jeremiah 18

²“Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.”

³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making something on the wheels.

⁴When 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.

⁵Then the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

⁶“House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

⁷At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it,

⁸if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

⁹At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,

¹⁰if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they don’t 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, ‘The LORD 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.”’

¹²But 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.’”

¹³Therefore the LORD says:

¹⁴Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field?

¹⁵For my people have forgotten me.

¹⁶to make their land an astonishment,

¹⁷I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy.

¹⁸Then 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.”

¹⁹Give heed to me, LORD,

²⁰Should evil be recompensed for good?

²¹Therefore deliver up their children to the famine,

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses

²³Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to kill me.