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18The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
²Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
⁴And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
⁶O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
⁷At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
⁸If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
⁹And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
¹⁰If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
¹¹Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
¹²And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
¹³Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
¹⁴Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
¹⁵Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
¹⁶To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
¹⁷I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.