Chapter 18

  The word that came from Jeremias to the Lord, saying:  

  Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there thou shalt hear my words.  

  And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel.  

  And the vessel was broken which he was making with clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it.  

  Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:  

  Cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.  

  I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.  

  If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.  

  And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build up and plant it.  

  If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice: I will repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it.  

  Now therefore tell the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: let every man of you return from his evil way, and make ye your ways and your doings good.  

  And they said: We have no hopes: for we will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart.  

  Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?  

  Shall now the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or can the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?  

  Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not trodden:  

  That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and wag his head.  

  As a burning will I scatter them before the enemy: I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.  

  And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.  

  Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.  

  Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, so speak good for them, and turn away thy indignation from them.  

  Therefore deliver up their children to famine, and bring them into the hands of the sword: let their wives be bereaved of children and widows: and let their husbands be slain by death: let their young men be stabbed with the sword in battle.  

  Let a cry be heard out of their houses: for thou shalt bring the robber upon them suddenly: because they have digged a pit to take me, and have hid snares for my feet.  

  But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto death: forgive not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight: let them be overthrown before thy eyes, in the time of thy wrath do thou destroy them.