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Jeremiah 18 :: New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB95)

The Potter and the Clay

Jer 18:1The word which 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 18:3Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the [fn]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 18:5Then the word of the LORD came to me saying,
Jer 18:6“Can I not, O house of Israel, 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, O house of Israel.
Jer 18:7“At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;
Jer 18:8if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will [fn]relent concerning the calamity 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 [fn]think better of the good with which I had promised to [fn]bless it.
Jer 18:11“So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and [fn]reform 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 act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
Jer 18:13“Therefore thus says the LORD,
‘Ask now among the nations,
Who ever heard the like of [fn]this?
The virgin of Israel
Has done a most appalling thing.
Jer 18:14‘Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?
Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away?
Jer 18:15‘For My people have forgotten Me,
They burn incense [fn]to worthless gods
And they [fn]have stumbled [fn]from their ways,
[fn]From the ancient paths,
To walk in bypaths,
Not on a highway,
Jer 18:16To 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 calamity.’”
Jer 18:18Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the divine word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words.”
Jer 18:19Do give heed to me, O LORD,
And listen to [fn]what my opponents are saying!
Jer 18:20Should good be repaid with evil?
For they have dug a pit for [fn]me.
Remember how I stood before You
To speak good on their behalf,
So as to turn away Your wrath from them.
Jer 18:21Therefore, give their children over to famine
And deliver them up to the [fn]power of the sword;
And let their wives become childless and widowed.
Let their men also be smitten to death,
Their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22May an outcry 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 18:23Yet You, O LORD, know
All their [fn]deadly designs against me;
Do not [fn]forgive their iniquity
Or blot out their sin from Your sight.
But may they be [fn]overthrown before You;
Deal with them in the time of Your anger!
NASB95 Footnotes
Literally: pair of stone discs
Literally: repent of
Literally: repent
Literally: do it good
Literally: make good
Literally: these
Literally: to worthlessness
So ancient versions; Heb caused them to
Or, in
So ancient versions; M.T. reads look them in the back and not in the face
Literally: the voice of my opponents
Literally: my soul
Literally: hands of
Literally: unto death
Literally: cover over, atone for
Literally: ones made to stumble
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New American Standard Bible 1995
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Jeremiah Chapter 18 — Additional Translations: