1The word which came to Jeremiah from Yehovah, saying, 2Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. 3Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he was making a work on the wheel. 4And when the vessel that he made of the clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. 5Then the word of Yehovah came to me, saying, 6O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says Yehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7At what instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; 8if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will relent of the evil that I thought to do to them. 9And at what instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10if they do that which is evil in my sight, so that they do not obey my voice, then I will relent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them. 11Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. 12But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart. 13Therefore thus says Yehovah: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. 14Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? 15For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; 16to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shake his head. 17I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. 18Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; 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 not give heed to any of his words. 19Give heed to me, O Yehovah, and hearken to the voice of those who contend with me. 20Shall evil be repaid for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. 21Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain by death, and their young men struck by the sword in battle. 22Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hidden snares for my feet. 23Yet, Yehovah, you know all their counsel against me to slay me; do not forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.