¹The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying:

²Rise and go down to the house of the potter, and there I will make you hear my words.

³And I went down to the house of the potter, and there he was, doing his work on the wheel.

⁴Now the vessel that he was making from the clay in the hand of the potter was spoiled, so he turned back and made it into another vessel, just as it seemed right in the eyes of the potter to do.

⁵And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying:

⁶Am I not able to do for you like this potter, house of Israel?—the utterance of Yahweh. Behold, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

⁷At one moment I may speak about a nation and about a kingdom, to uproot, to pull down, and to destroy;

⁸and if that nation turns back from its evil, that I spoke against it, then I will be sorry about the disaster that I planned to do to it.

⁹And at another moment I may speak about a nation and about a kingdom, to build and to plant;

¹⁰and it does what is evil in my eyes, by not listening to my voice, then I will be sorry about the good that I said I would do good for it.

¹¹And now, say, please, to the men of Judah and to those dwelling in Jerusalem, saying: Like this Yahweh has said: Behold, I am forming a disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Turn back, please, each man from his evil way, and make good your ways and your deeds.

¹²And they will say: It is hopeless! For we will go after our plans, and each of us will act by the stubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³Therefore, like this Yahweh has said: Ask, please, among the nations: who has heard the like of these things? The virgin of Israel has done an exceedingly horrible thing.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon leave the rock of the field? Or are strange, cool, flowing waters uprooted?

¹⁵For my people have forgotten me; they make sacrifices smoke to emptiness, and they have made them stumble in their ways, the paths of forever, so as to walk in tracks, a way not built up.

¹⁶To make their land a waste, a whistling forever; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and will wag his head.

¹⁷Like an east wind I will scatter them before the enemy; I will see them—the back of the neck and not the face—in the day of their disaster.

¹⁸And they said: Come, let us devise plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor a word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give attention to any of his words.

¹⁹Give attention to me, Yahweh, and hear the voice of my adversaries.

²⁰Should evil be repaid in place of good? For they have dug a pit for my being. Remember my standing before your face to speak good on their behalf, to turn back your burning anger from them.

²¹Therefore, give their sons to famine, and deliver them over to the hands of the sword; let their wives become bereaved and widows, and let their men be killed by pestilence, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

²²May a cry of distress be heard from their houses, when you bring a marauding band upon them suddenly; for they have dug a pit to capture me, and have hidden bird-traps for my feet.

²³And you, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me for death. Do not cover over their guilt, and do not blot out their sin from before your face; let them be made to stumble before your face; in the time of your anger, deal with them.