As the clay in the hand of the potter, so is Israel in God’s hand. He
pardoneth penitents, and punisheth the obstinate. They conspire against
Jeremias, for which he denounceth to them the miseries that hang over
them.
18:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
18:2. Arise, and go down into the potter’s house, and there thou shalt
hear my words.
18:3. And I went down into the potter’s house, and behold he was doing
a work on the wheel.
18:4. And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his
hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his
eyes to make it.
18:5. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
18:6. Cannot I do with you, as this potter, O house of Israel, saith
the Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my
hand, O house of Israel.
18:7. I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to
root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.
18:8. 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.
18:9. And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build
up and plant it.
18:10. 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.
18:11. 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.
18:12. 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.
18:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath
heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to
excess?
18:14. Shall 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?
18:15. 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:
18:16. 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.
18:17. As a burning wind will I scatter them before the enemy: I will
shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.
18:18. 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.
18:19. Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.
18:20. Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit
for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for
them, and to turn away thy indignation from them.
Remember, etc.... This is spoken in the person of Christ, persecuted by
the Jews, and prophetically denouncing the evils that should fall upon
them in punishment of their crimes.
18:21. 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.
18:22. 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.
18:23. 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.