18 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

² Arise, and go down into the potter's house, and there thou shalt hear my words.

³ And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel.

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.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

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.

⁷ I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.

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.

⁹ And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build up and plant it.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

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:

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.

¹⁷ As a burning will I scatter them before the enemy: I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.

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.

¹⁹ Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.

²⁰ Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, so speak good for them, and turn away thy indignation from them.

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.

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.

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.