Jeremiah, Chapter 18

1. The word that came unto Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying:    2. Arise and go down to the house of the potter, -- and, there, will I cause thee to hear my words.    3. So I went down, to the house of the potter, -- and there he was! making a piece of work on the wheels,    4. Then was marred, the vessel that he was making, while yet it was clay in the hand of the potter, -- so he turned and made of it another vessel, as seemed right in the eyes of the potter to make it.    5. Then came the word of Yahweh unto me, saying:    6. Like this potter, can I not deal with you O house of Israel? Demandeth Yahweh: Lo! as clay in the hand of the potter, So, are, ye, in my hand O house of Israel.    7. The moment I speak, concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, -- to pull up and to break down, and to destroy;    8. and that nation return from its wickedness against whom I have spoken, then will I repent concerning the calamity which I had devised to bring upon it.    9. And, the moment I speak, concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, -- to build and to plant;    10. and it commit wickedness in mine eyes, in not hearkening unto my voice, then will I repent concerning the good wherewith I had said I would do it good.    11. Now, therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the men of Judah and concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, Thus, saith Yahweh, -- Lo! I am fashioning against you calamity, and devising against you, a device, -- Return I pray you every man from his wicked way, And amend your ways and your doings.    12. And, since they will say, Hopeless! For after our own devices, will we walk, And, very one, the stubbornness of his own wicked heart, will we do!    13. Therefore, Thus saith Yahweh, Ask I pray you among the nations, -- Who hath heard such things as these? A very horrible thing, hath, the virgin, Israel done!    14. Shall the snow of Lebanon, fall from the rock of the field? Or shall waters from afar, deep, overflowing, be dried up?    15. Yet my people have forgotten me, Unto vanity, have they been burning incense; And it hath caused them to stumble In their ways The roads of age-past times, To walk in by-paths -- A way not cast up.    16. To make their land a desolation The hissings of age-abiding times, -- Every one that passeth by her, shall be astonished and wag his head.    17. Like an east wind, will I scatter them before the enemy, -- The back and not the face, will I let them see in the day of their distress.    18. Then said they, -- Come ye and let us devise against Jeremiah devices, For the law shall not perish from the priest, Nor, counsel, from the wise, Nor, the word from the prophet: Come and let as smite him with the tongue, And let us not give ear to any of his words!    19. Give thou ear O Yahweh unto me, -- And hearken unto the voice of mine accusers.    20. Shall, evil, be recompensed for good? For they have digged a pit for my life, -- Remember how I stood before thee To speak in their behalf what was good! To turn back thine indignation from them.    21. Therefore, give thou up their sons to the famine And deliver them into the hands of the sword, And let their, wives, become, childless and widows, And let, their men, be slain by death, Their young men be smitten by the sword in battle.    22. Let there be heard a cry out of their houses, When thou shalt bring in upon them a troop, suddenly, -- Because they digged a pit to capture me, And snares, did they hide for my feet.    23. But, thou, O Yahweh, knowest all their counsels against me to pat me to death, Put thou no propitiatory-covering over their iniquity, And their sin from before thee, do not thou blot out, -- But let them be overthrown before thee, In the time of thine anger, deal thou effectively with them.