Jer 18 | ESV | STEP | The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord :

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to ^athe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to ^bthe potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was ^cspoiled in the potter’s hand, and ^dhe reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, ^ecan I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^fBehold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^gpluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^hturns from its evil, ⁱI will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^jbuild and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^kReturn, every one from his evil way, and ^lamend your ways and your deeds.’

12 “But they say, ^m‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ⁿthe stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
^oAsk among the nations,
Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done ^pa very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion? ^{▼▼Hebrew of the field}
Do the mountain waters run dry, ^{▼▼Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up}
the cold flowing streams?
15 ^sBut my people have forgotten me;
they make offerings to ^tfalse gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
^uin the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
^vnot the highway,
16 making their land ^wa horror,
a thing ^xto be hissed at forever.
^yEveryone who passes by it is horrified
^zand shakes his head.
17 ^aaLike the east wind ^abI will scatter them
before the enemy.
^acI will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”

18 Then they said, ^ad“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^aefor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^afCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O Lord,
and ^aglisten to the voice of my adversaries.
20 ^ahShould good be repaid with evil?
Yet ^aithey have dug a pit for my life.
^ajRemember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore ^akdeliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ^aland widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 ^amMay a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For ^anthey have dug a pit to take me
^aoand laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet ^apyou, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
^aqForgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.