Jeremiah:18-21

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* The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord , saying , * Arise , and go down to the potter ’s house , and there will I let thee hear my words . * Then went I down to the potter ’s house , and , behold , he was doing work on the wheels . * And the vessel that he was making became spoiled as with the clay in the hand of the potter ; and he made again thereof another vessel , as it seemed good in the eyes of the potter to make it . * Then came the word of the Lord to me , saying , * Shall I not be able to do unto you as this potter , O house of Israel ? saith the Lord . Behold , as the clay is in the potter ’s hand , so are ye in my hand , O house of Israel . * At one instant I speak concerning a nation , and concerning a kingdom , to root out , and to pull down , and to destroy it ; * But should that nation , against whom I have spoken , return from their wrong –doing : then will I bethink me of the evil that I had thought to do unto them . * And at one instant I speak concerning a nation , and concerning a kingdom , to build and to plant it ; * But should it do what is evil in my eyes , so as not to hearken to my voice : then will I bethink me of the good , wherewith I had thought to benefit the same . * And now do say to the men of Judah , and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem , as followeth , Thus hath said the Lord , Behold , I form against you evil , and devise against you a device : do but return now every one from his evil way , and amend your ways and your deeds . * And they said , It is useless : for after our own thoughts will we walk , and we will every one do after the stubbornness of his evil heart . * Therefore thus hath said the Lord , Only ask among the nations , Who hath heard the like things ? a very horrible act hath the virgin of Israel committed . * Doth the snow of Lebanon ever quit the rock of the field ? or do the far –coming , cold , flowing waters ever fail ? * That my people have forgotten me , that they have burnt incense to false gods , and are made to stumble on their ways , the ancient beaten tracks , to walk in paths , on a road which is not leveled ? * To make their land desolate , a perpetual derision : every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished , and shake his head . * Like an east wind will I scatter them before the enemy ; with the back , and not the face , will I regard them on the day of their calamity . * And they said , Come , and let us contrive devices against Jeremiah ; for the law will not be lost from the priest , nor counsel from the wise , nor the word from the prophet . Come , and let us smite him with the tongue , and let us not listen to any of his words . * Listen to me , O Lord , and hearken to the voice of those that contend with me . * Shall evil be recompensed instead of good , that they have dug a pit for my life ? Remember my standing before thee to speak good concerning them , to cause thy wrath to turn away from them . * Therefore give up their children to the famine , and let their life ebb out by means of the sword ; and let their wives be bereaved of their children , and widows ; and let their men be slain by death ; their young men smitten by the sword in the battle . * Let a cry be heard from their houses , when thou bringest a troop over them suddenly ; for they have dug a pit to catch me , and laid concealed snares for my feet . * Yet thou , Lord , knowest well all their counsel against me to death : forgive not their iniquity , and let their sin not be blotted out from before thee ; but let them be brought to stumbling before thee ; in the time of thy anger deal thus with them . * Thus said the Lord , Go and buy a bottle from a maker of earthenware , and some of the elders of the people , and of the elders of the priests ; * And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom , which is by the entry of the gate Charsith , and proclaim there the words that I will speak unto thee . * And say , Hear ye the word of the Lord , O kings of Judah , and inhabitants of Jerusalem , Thus hath said the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel , Behold , I will bring evil over this place , so that the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle . * For the reason that they have forsaken me , and have defiled this place , and have burnt incense in it unto other gods , which they had not known , either they or their fathers , or the kings of Judah , and have filled this place with the blood of innocents ; * And they have built the high –places of Ba ’al , to burn their sons with fire as burnt –offerings unto Ba ’al , which I had not commanded , nor spoken , and which had not come into my mind : * Therefore , behold , days are coming , saith the Lord , that this place shall no more be called The Thopheth , nor The valley of the son of Hinnom , but , The valley of slaughter . * And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place ; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies , and by the hand of those that seek their life : and I will give their carcasses as food unto the fowls of the heaven , and unto the beasts of the earth . * And I will render this city desolate , and an derision : every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues . * And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters , and they shall eat every one the flesh of his associate , in the siege and straitness , wherewith their enemies , and those that seek their life , shall distress them . * Then shalt thou break the bottle before the eyes of the men that are going with thee . * And thou shalt say unto them , Thus hath said the Lord of hosts , In this manner will I break this people and this city , as one breaketh a potter ’s vessel , that cannot be restored again ; and in Thopheth shall they bury , for want of room to bury . * Thus will I do unto this place , saith the Lord , and to its inhabitants , and to make this city as Thopheth : * And the houses of Jerusalem , and the houses of the kings of Judah , which are unclean , shall become as the place of the Thopheth , with all the houses upon the roofs of which they have burnt incense to all the host of heaven , and have poured out drink –offerings to other gods . * Then came Jeremiah from the Thopheth , whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy ; and he placed himself in the court of the house of the Lord ; and said to all the people , * Thus hath said the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel , Behold , I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have spoken against it ; because they have hardened their neck , so as not to hear my words . * But when Pashchur the son of Immer the priest , who was chief superintendent in the house of the Lord , heard Jeremiah prophesying these words : * Then smote Pashchur Jeremiah the prophet , and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin , which was in the house of the Lord . * And it came to pass on the morrow , that Pashchur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks . And Jeremiah said unto him , Not Pashchur hath the Lord called thy name , but Magor –missabib . * For thus hath said the Lord , Behold , I will make thee a terror to thyself , and to all thy friends ; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies , and thy eyes shall see it ; and all Judah will I give into the hand of the king of Babylon , and he shall lead them into exile to Babylon , and shall smite them with the sword . * And I will give up all the wealth of this city , and all its acquisitions , and all its precious things ; and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies , who shall plunder them , and take them and carry them away to Babylon . * And thou , Pashchur , and all the inhabitants of thy house , shall go into captivity ; and to Babylon shalt thou come , and there thou shalt die , and there shalt thou be buried , thou , and all thy friends , to whom thou hast prophesied with falsehood . * Thou didst persuade me , O Lord , and I was persuaded ; thou laidst thy strongly on me , and didst prevail : I am laughed at all the time , every one mocketh me . * For as often as I speak must I cry out , violence and wasting must I proclaim ; because the word of the Lord is become unto me a disgrace , and a derision , all the time . * And I thought , I will not make mention of him , and I will not speak any more in his name . But it became in my heart as a burning fire enclosed within my bones , and I was weary with enduring , and I could not overcome it . * For I heard the defaming of many , angry assemblies on every side , "Tell , and we will tell of him ." All the men who ought to seek my welfare , watch for my fall ; saying , "Peradventure he may he enticed , and we shall prevail against him , and we will then take our revenge on him ." * But the Lord is with me as a mighty powerful one ; therefore my persecutors will stumble , and they will not prevail : they will be greatly ashamed , for they will not prosper ; an everlasting confusion which will never be forgotten . * But , O Lord of hosts , that probest the righteous , seest the reins and the heart , let me see thy vengeance on them ; for unto thee have I laid open my cause . * Sing unto the Lord , praise ye the Lord ; for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil –doers . * Cursed be the day whereon I was born : the day on which my mother bore me shall not be blessed . * Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father , saying , A man –child is born unto thee . How very glad did he make him ! * And may that same man become like the cities which the Lord overthrew , and bethought himself not ; and may he hear a cry of anguish in the morning , and a tumultuous noise at noontide ; * Because I was not slain from the womb ; or that my mother might have become unto me my grave , and her womb have been affected with a perpetual pregnancy . * Wherefore was this that I came forth out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow , that my days should pass away in shame ? * The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord , when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashchur the son of Malkiyah , and Zephanyah the son of Ma ’asseyah the priest , saying , * Inquire , I pray thee , in our behalf of the Lord ; for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon maketh war against us ; peradventure the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous deeds , so that he may withdraw from us . * Then said Jeremiah unto them , Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah : * Thus hath said the Lord the God of Israel , Behold , I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands , wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon , and against the Chaldeans , who besiege you without the walls , and I will assemble them into the midst of this city . * And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm , and in anger , and in fury , and in great wrath . * And I will smite the inhabitants of this city , both man and beast : of a great pestilence shall they die . * And afterward , saith the Lord , will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah , and his servants , and the people , and those that are left in this city from the pestilence , from the sword , and from the famine , into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon , and into the hand of their enemies , and into the hand of those that seek their life : and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword ; he will not spare them , nor have pity , nor have mercy . * And unto this people shalt thou say , Thus hath said the Lord , Behold , I set before you the way of life , and the way of death . * He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword , or by the famine , or by the pestilence ; but he that goeth out , and runneth away to the Chaldeans that besiege you , shall remain alive , and his life shall be unto him as a booty . * For I have set my face against this city for evil , and not for good , saith the Lord : into the hand of the king of Babylon shall it be given up , and he will burn it with fire . * And to the house of the king of Judah , Hear ye the word of the Lord : * O house of David , thus hath said the Lord , Exercise justice on morning , and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor ; lest my fury go forth like fire , and burn so that none can quench it , because of the evil of your doings . * Behold , I am against thee , O inhabitress of the valley , the rock of the plain , saith the Lord ; who say , Who shall descend down against us ? or who shall enter into our habitations ? * But I will inflict punishment on you according to the fruit of your doings , saith the Lord : and I will kindle a fire in its forest , and it shall devour all its environs . * Thus said the Lord , Go down to the house of the king of Judah , and speak there this word ;

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