Jeremiah 18
International Children’s Bible
The Potter and the Clay
18 This is the word the Lord spoke to Jeremiah: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house. I will give you my message there.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house. I saw him working at the potter’s wheel. 4 He was making a pot from clay. But something went wrong with it. So the potter used that clay to make another pot. He used his hands to shape the pot the way that he wanted it to be.
5 Then the Lord spoke his word to me: 6 “Family of Israel, can’t I do the same thing with you?” says the Lord. “You are like the clay in the potter’s hands. 7 There may come a time when I will speak about a nation or a kingdom. I might say I will pull that nation up by its roots. Or I might say I will pull that nation down and destroy it. 8 But if the people of that nation are sorry for the evil they have done, I would change my mind. I would not carry out my plans to bring disaster to them. 9 There may come another time when I will speak about a nation. I might say that I will build up and plant that nation. 10 But if I see it doing evil by not obeying me, I would change my mind. I would not carry out my plans to do good for them.
11 “So, say this to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am preparing disaster for you right now. I am making plans against you. So stop doing the evil you are doing. Change your ways and do what is right.’ 12 But the people of Judah will answer, ‘It won’t do any good to try! We will continue to do what we want. Each of us will do what his stubborn, evil heart wants!’”
13 So this is what the Lord says:
“Ask the people in other nations this question:
‘Have you ever heard anything like this?’
The people of Israel have done a horrible thing.
14 The snow on the mountains of Lebanon
never melts from the rocks.
Its cool, flowing streams
do not dry up.
15 But my people have forgotten me.
They make offerings to worthless idols.
This makes them stumble in what they do.
They stumble about in the old ways of their ancestors.
They walk along back roads
and on poor highways.
16 So Judah’s country will become an empty desert.
People will not stop making fun of it.
They will shake their heads as they pass by.
They will be shocked at how the country was destroyed.
17 I will scatter them before their enemies
as a strong east wind blows things away.
At that awful time they will not see me coming to help them.
They will see me leaving.”
Jeremiah’s Fourth Complaint
18 Then the people said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah. Surely the teaching of the law by the priest will not be lost. And the advice from the wise men will still be with us. We will still have the words of the prophets. So let’s ruin him by telling lies about him! We won’t pay attention to anything he says.”
19 Lord, listen to me.
Listen to what my accusers are saying!
20 Good should not be paid back with evil.
But they have dug a pit in order to kill me.
Lord, remember that I stood before you
and asked you to do good things for these people.
I asked you to turn your anger away from them.
21 So now, let their children starve.
Let their enemies defeat them with swords.
Let their wives lose their children and husbands.
Let the men from Judah be put to death.
Let the young men be killed in battle.
22 Let them cry out in their houses.
Bring an enemy against them suddenly.
Let all this happen because my enemies have dug a pit to trap me.
And they have hidden traps for me to step in.
23 Lord, you know
about their plans to kill me.
Don’t forgive their crimes.
Don’t erase their sins.
Make them fall from their places.
Punish them while you are angry.
Jeremiah 18
Revised Standard Version
The Potter and the Clay
18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? says the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will repent of the good which I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.’
Israel’s Stubborn Idolatry
12 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
Ask among the nations,
who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done a very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Si′rion?[a]
Do the mountain[b] waters run dry,[c]
the cold flowing streams?
15 But my people have forgotten me,
they burn incense to false gods;
they have stumbled[d] in their ways,
in the ancient roads,
and have gone into bypaths,
not the highway,
16 making their land a horror,
a thing to be hissed at for ever.
Every one who passes by it is horrified
and shakes his head.
17 Like the east wind I will scatter them
before the enemy.
I will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
A Plot against Jeremiah
18 Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words.”
19 Give heed to me, O Lord,
and hearken to my plea.[e]
20 Is evil a recompense for good?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before thee
to speak good for them,
to turn away thy wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword,
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
22 May a cry be heard from their houses,
when thou bringest the marauder suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to take me,
and laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet, thou, O Lord, knowest
all their plotting to slay me.
Forgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from thy sight.
Let them be overthrown before thee;
deal with them in the time of thine anger.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 18:14 Cn: Heb the field
- Jeremiah 18:14 Cn: Heb foreign
- Jeremiah 18:14 Cn: Heb Are . . . plucked up?
- Jeremiah 18:15 Gk Syr Vg: Heb they made them stumble
- Jeremiah 18:19 Gk Compare Syr Tg: Heb my adversaries
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Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.