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Jeremiah 18 :: New American Standard Bible 2020 (NASB20)

The Potter and the Clay

Jer 18:1

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Jer 18:2“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.”
Jer 18:3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.
Jer 18:4But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
Jer 18:5

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jer 18:6“Am I not able, house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel.
Jer 18:7“At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot it, to tear it down, or to destroy it;
Jer 18:8if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I planned to bring on it.
Jer 18:9“Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it;
Jer 18:10if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will relent of the good with which I said [fn]that I would bless it.
Jer 18:11“So now, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am forming a disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Now turn back, each of you from his evil way, and [fn]correct your ways and your deeds!”’
Jer 18:12“But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will [fn]persist in the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
Jer 18:13

“Therefore this is what the LORD says:

‘Just ask among the nations,

Who ever heard anything like [fn]this?

The virgin of Israel

Has done a most appalling thing.

Jer 18:14

‘Does the snow of Lebanon leave the rock of the open country alone?

Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever dried up?

Jer 18:15

‘For My people have forgotten Me,

They burn incense [fn]to worthless gods.

And they [fn]have stumbled in their ways,

In the ancient roads,

To walk on paths,

Not on a highway,

Jer 18:16

To make their land a desolation,

An object of perpetual hissing;

Everyone who passes by it will be astonished

And shake his head.

Jer 18:17

‘Like an east wind I will scatter them

Before the enemy;

I will [fn]show them My back and not My face

In the day of their disaster.’”

Jer 18:18

Then they said, “Come and let’s devise plans against Jeremiah. Certainly the Law is not going to be lost by the priest, nor advice by the wise, nor the divine word by the prophet! Come, and let’s strike at him with our tongue, and let’s pay no attention to any of his words.”

Jer 18:19

Give Your attention to me, LORD,

And listen to [fn]what my opponents are saying!

Jer 18:20

Should good be repaid with evil?

For they have dug a pit for [fn]me.

Remember how I stood before You

To speak good in their behalf,

So as to turn Your wrath away from them.

Jer 18:21

Therefore, give their children over to famine

And turn them over to the [fn]power of the sword;

And let their wives become childless and widowed.

Let their men also be slaughtered to death,

Their young men struck and killed by the sword in battle.

Jer 18:22

May a cry be heard from their houses

When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;

For they have dug a pit to capture me

And hidden snares for my feet.

Jer 18:23

But You, LORD, know

All their [fn]deadly schemes against me;

Do not [fn]forgive their wrongdoing

Or wipe out their sin from Your sight.

But may they be [fn]overthrown before You;

Deal with them in the time of Your anger!

NASB20 Footnotes
Lit to do it good
Lit make good
Lit do the
Lit these
Lit to worthlessness
As in ancient versions; MT caused them to
As in ancient versions; MT look them in the back and not in the face
Lit the voice of my opponents
Lit my soul
Lit hands of
Lit unto death
Lit cover over, atone for
Lit ones made to stumble
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Jeremiah Chapter 18 — Additional Translations: