Jeremiah:18-22

---

Seeker Overlay ON

* The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD , saying : * 'Arise , and go down to the potter 's house , and there I will cause thee to hear My words .' * Then I went down to the potter 's house , and , behold , he was at his work on the wheels . * And whensoever the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter , he made it again another vessel , as seemed good to the potter to make it . * Then the word of the LORD came to me , saying : * 'O house of Israel , cannot I do with you as this potter ? saith the LORD . Behold , as the clay in the potter 's hand , so are ye in My hand , O house of Israel . * At one instant I may speak concerning a nation , and concerning a kingdom , to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it ; * but if that nation turn from their evil , because of which I have spoken against it , I repent of the evil that I thought to do unto it . * And at one instant I may speak concerning a nation , and concerning a kingdom , to build and to plant it ; * but if it do evil in My sight , that it hearken not to My voice , then I repent of the good , wherewith I said I would benefit it . * Now therefore do thou speak to the men of Judah , and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem , saying : Thus saith the LORD : Behold , I frame evil against you , and devise a device against you ; return ye now every one from his evil way , and amend your ways and your doings . * But they say : There is no hope ; but we will walk after our own devices , and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart .' * Therefore thus saith the LORD : Ask ye now among the nations , who hath heard such things ; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing . * Doth the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field ? or are the strange cold flowing waters plucked up ? * For My people hath forgotten Me , they offer unto vanity ; and they have been made to stumble in their ways , in the ancient paths , to walk in bypaths , in a way not cast up ; * To make their land an astonishment , and a perpetual hissing ; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished , and shake his head . * I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy ; I will look upon their back , and not their face , in the day of their calamity . * Then said they : 'Come , and let us devise devices against Jeremiah ; for instruction shall not perish 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 give heed to any of his words .' * Give heed to me , O LORD , and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me . * Shall evil be recompensed for good ? For they have digged a pit for my soul . Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them , to turn away Thy wrath from them . * Therefore deliver up their children to the famine , and hurl them to the power of the sword ; and let their wives be bereaved of their children , and widows ; and let their men be slain of death , and their young men smitten of the sword in battle . * Let a cry be heard from their houses , when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them ; for they have digged a pit to take me , and hid snares for my feet . * Yet , LORD , Thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me ; forgive not their iniquity , neither blot out their sin from Thy sight ; but let them be made to stumble before Thee ; Deal Thou with them in the time of Thine anger . * Thus said the LORD : Go , and get a potter 's earthen bottle , and take 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 Harsith , and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee ; * and say : Hear ye the word of the LORD , O kings of Judah , and inhabitants of Jerusalem ; thus saith the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel : Behold , I will bring evil upon this place , which whosoever heareth , his ears shall tingle ; * because they have forsaken Me , and have estranged this place , and have offered in it unto other gods , whom neither they nor their fathers have known , nor the kings of Judah ; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents ; * and have built the high places of Baal , to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal ; which I commanded not , nor spoke it , neither came it into My mind . * Therefore , behold , the days come , saith the LORD , that this place shall no more be called Topheth , 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 them that seek their life ; and their carcasses will I give to be food for the fowls of the heaven , and for the beasts of the earth ; * and I will make this city an astonishment , and a hissing ; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof ; * 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 friend , in the siege and in the straitness , wherewith their enemies , and they that seek their life , shall straiten them . * Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee , * and shalt say unto them : Thus saith the LORD of hosts : Even so will I break this people and this city , as one breaketh a potter 's vessel , that cannot be made whole again ; and they shall bury in Topheth , for want of room to bury . * Thus will I do unto this place , saith the LORD , and to the inhabitants thereof , even making this city as Topheth ; * and the houses of Jerusalem , and the houses of the kings of Judah , which are defiled , shall be as the place of Topheth , even all the houses upon whose roofs they have offered unto all the host of heaven , and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods . * Then came Jeremiah from Topheth , whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy ; and he stood in the court of the LORD 'S house , and said to all the people : * 'Thus saith the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel : Behold , I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it ; because they have made their neck stiff , that they might not hear My words .' * Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest , who was chief officer in the house of the LORD , heard Jeremiah prophesying these things . * Then Pashhur smote 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 Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks . Then said Jeremiah unto him : 'The LORD hath not called thy name Pashhur , but Magormissabib . * For thus saith 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 thine eyes shall behold it ; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon , and he shall carry them captive to Babylon , and shall slay them with the sword . * Moreover I will give all the store of this city , and all the gains thereof , and all the wealth thereof , yea , all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies , who shall spoil them , and take them , and carry them to Babylon . * And thou , Pashhur , and all that dwell in thy house shall go into captivity ; and thou shalt come to Babylon , and there thou shalt die , and there shalt thou be buried , thou , and all thy friends , to whom thou hast prophesied falsely .' * O LORD , Thou hast enticed me , and I was enticed , Thou hast overcome me , and hast prevailed ; I am become a laughing-stock all the day , every one mocketh me . * For as often as I speak , I cry out , I cry : 'Violence and spoil '; because the word of the LORD is made a reproach unto me , and a derision , all the day . * And if I say : 'I will not make mention of Him , nor speak any more in His name ', then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones , and I weary myself to hold it in , but cannot . * For I have heard the whispering of many , terror on every side : 'Denounce , and we will denounce him '; even of all my familiar friends , them that watch for my halting : 'Peradventure he will be enticed , and we shall prevail against him , and we shall take our revenge on him .' * But the LORD is with me as a mighty warrior ; therefore my persecutors shall stumble , and they shall not prevail ; they shall be greatly ashamed , because they have not prospered , even with an everlasting confusion which shall never be forgotten . * But , O LORD of hosts , that triest the righteous , that seest the reins and the heart , let me see Thy vengeance on them ; for unto Thee have I revealed 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 wherein I was born ; the day wherein my mother bore me , let it not be blessed . * Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father , saying : 'A man-child is born unto thee '; making him very glad . * And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew , and repented not ; and let him hear a cry in the morning , and an alarm at noontide ; * Because He slew me not from the womb ; and so my mother would have been my grave , and her womb always great . * Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow , that my days should be consumed in shame ? * The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD , when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Malchiah , and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest , saying : * 'Inquire , I pray thee , of the LORD for us ; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us ; peradventure the LORD will deal with us according to all His wondrous works , that he may go up from us .' * Then said Jeremiah unto them : Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah : * Thus saith 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 , that besiege you without the walls , and I will gather them into the midst of this city . * And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm , even in anger , and in fury , and in great wrath . * And I will smite the inhabitants of this city , both man and beast ; they shall die of a great pestilence . * And afterward , saith the LORD , I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah , and his servants , and the people , and such as are left in this city from the pestilence , from the sword , and from the famine , into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar 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 shall not spare them , neither have pity , nor have compassion . * And unto this people thou shalt say : Thus saith the LORD : Behold , I set before you the way of life and the way of death . * He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword , and by the famine , and by the pestilence ; but he that goeth out , and falleth away to the Chaldeans that besiege you , he shall live , and his life shall be unto him for a prey . * For I have set My face against this city for evil , and not for good , saith the LORD ; it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon , and he shall burn it with fire . * And unto the house of the king of Judah : Hear ye the word of the LORD ; * O house of David , thus saith the LORD : Execute justice in the morning , and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor , lest My fury go forth like fire , and burn that none can quench it , because of the evil of your doings . * Behold , I am against thee , O inhabitant of the valley , and rock of the plain , saith the LORD ; ye that say : 'Who shall come down against us ? or who shall enter into our habitations ?' * And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings , saith the LORD ; and I will kindle a fire in her forest , and it shall devour all that is round about her . * Thus said the LORD : Go down to the house of the king of Judah , and speak there this word , * and say : Hear the word of the LORD , O king of Judah , that sittest upon the throne of David , thou , and thy servants , and thy people that enter in by these gates . * Thus saith the LORD : Execute ye justice and righteousness , and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor ; and do no wrong , do no violence , to the stranger , the fatherless , nor the widow , neither shed innocent blood in this place . * For if ye do this thing indeed , then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David , riding in chariots and on horses , he , and his servants , and his people . * But if ye will not hear these words , I swear by Myself , saith the LORD , that this house shall become a desolation . * For thus saith the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah : Thou art Gilead unto Me , the head of Lebanon ; yet surely I will make thee a wilderness , cities which are not inhabited . * And I will prepare destroyers against thee , every one with his weapons ; and they shall cut down thy choice cedars , and cast them into the fire . * And many nations shall pass by this city , and they shall say every man to his neighbour : 'Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city ?' * Then they shall answer : 'Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God , and worshipped other gods , and served them .' * Weep ye not for the dead , neither bemoan him ; but weep sore for him that goeth away , for he shall return no more , nor see his native country . * For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah , king of Judah , who reigned instead of Josiah his father , and who went forth out of this place : He shall not return thither any more ; * but in the place whither they have led him captive , there shall he die , and he shall see this land no more . * Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness , and his chambers by injustice ; that useth his neighbour 's service without wages , and giveth him not his hire ; * That saith : 'I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers ', and cutteth him out windows , and it is ceiled with cedar , and painted with vermilion . * Shalt thou reign , because thou strivest to excel in cedar ? Did not thy father eat and drink , and do justice and righteousness ? Then it was well with him . * He judged the cause of the poor and needy ; then it was well . Is not this to know Me ? saith the LORD . * But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousness , and for shedding innocent blood , and for oppression , and for violence , to do it . * Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah , king of Judah : They shall not lament for him : 'Ah my brother !' or : 'Ah sister !' They shall not lament for him : 'Ah lord !' or : 'Ah his glory !' * He shall be buried with the burial of an ass , drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem . * Go up to Lebanon , and cry , and lift up thy voice in Bashan ; and cry from Abarim , for all thy lovers are destroyed . * I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity , but thou saidst : 'I will not hear .' This hath been thy manner from thy youth , that thou hearkenedst not to My voice . * The wind shall feed upon all thy shepherds , and thy lovers shall go into captivity ; surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness . * O inhabitant of Lebanon , that art nestled in the cedars , how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee , the pain as of a woman in travail ! * As I live , saith the LORD , though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon My right hand , yet would I pluck thee thence ; * and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life , and into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid , even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon , and into the hand of the Chaldeans . * And I will cast thee out , and thy mother that bore thee , into another country , where ye were not born ; and there shall ye die . * But to the land whereunto they long to return , thither shall they not return . * Is this man Coniah a despised , broken image ? Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure ? Wherefore are they cast out , he and his seed , and are cast into the land which they know not ? * O land , land , land , hear the word of the LORD . * Thus saith the LORD : Write ye this man childless , a man that shall not prosper in his days ; for no man of his seed shall prosper , sitting upon the throne of David , and ruling any more in Judah . * Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture ! saith the LORD .

---