Study Desk

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

"Arise and ^(C1)go down to the potter's house, and there I will announce My words to you."

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.

But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"Am I not able, house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Behold, like the ^(C1)clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel.

"At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to ^(C1)uproot it, to tear it down, or to destroy it;

^(C1)if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will ^(C2)relent of the disaster that I planned to bring on it.

"Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to ^(C1)build up or to plant it;

if it does ^(C1)evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will ^(C2)relent of the good with which I said ^(F1)that I would bless it.

"So now, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 'This is what the LORD says: "Behold, I am ^(C1)forming a disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Now ^(C2)turn back, each of you from his evil way, and ^(F1)correct your ways and your deeds!"'

"But ^(C1)they will say, 'It's hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will ^(F1)persist in the ^(C2)stubbornness of his evil heart.'

"Therefore this is what the LORD says: '^(C1)Just ask among the nations, Who ever heard anything like ^(F1)this? The ^(C2)virgin of Israel Has done a most ^(C3)appalling thing.

-'Does the snow of Lebanon leave the rock of the open country alone? Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever dried up?

-'For ^(C1)My people have forgotten Me, ^(C2)They burn incense ^(F1)to worthless gods. And they ^(F2)have stumbled in their ways, In the ^(C3)ancient roads, To walk on paths, Not on a ^(C4)highway,

To make their land a ^(C1)desolation, An object of perpetual ^(C2)hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And ^(C3)shake his head.

-'Like an ^(C1)east wind I will ^(C2)scatter them Before the enemy; I will ^(F1)show them ^(C3)My back and not My face ^(C4)In the day of their disaster.'"

Then they said, "Come and let's ^(C1)devise plans against Jeremiah. Certainly the ^(C2)Law is not going to be lost by the priest, nor ^(C3)advice by the wise, nor the divine ^(C4)word by the prophet! Come, and let's ^(C5)strike at him with our tongue, and let's ^(C6)pay no attention to any of his words."

Give Your attention to me, LORD, And listen to ^(F1)what my opponents are saying!

^(C1)Should good be repaid with evil? For they have ^(C2)dug a pit for ^(F1)me. Remember how I ^(C3)stood before You To speak good in their behalf, So as to turn Your wrath away from them.

Therefore, ^(C1)give their children over to famine And turn them over to the ^(F1)power of the sword; And let their wives become ^(C2)childless and ^(C3)widowed. Let their men also be slaughtered to death, Their ^(C4)young men struck and killed by the sword in battle.

May a ^(C1)cry be heard from their houses When You suddenly bring raiders upon them; ^(C2)For they have dug a pit to capture me And ^(C3)hidden snares for my feet.

But You, LORD, know All their ^(F1)deadly schemes against me; ^(C1)Do not ^(F2)forgive their wrongdoing Or wipe out their sin from Your sight. But may they be ^(F3)(C2)overthrown before You; Deal with them in the ^(C3)time of Your anger!

This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a ^(C1)potter's earthenware ^(C2)jar, and take some of the ^(C3)elders of the people and some of the ^(F1)(C4)senior priests.

"Then go out to the ^(C1)Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the ^(F1)Potsherd Gate, and ^(C2)proclaim there the words that I tell you,

and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, you ^(C1)kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "Behold I am going to bring a ^(C2)disaster upon this place, at which the ^(C3)ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle.

"Since they have ^(C1)abandoned Me and have ^(C2)made this place foreign, and have burned ^(F1)sacrifices in it to ^(C3)other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and since they have filled this place with the ^(C4)blood of the innocent

and have built the ^(C1)high places of Baal to burn their ^(C2)sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I did not command nor speak of, nor did it ever enter My ^(F1)mind;

therefore, behold, ^(C1)days are coming," declares the LORD, "when this place will no longer be called ^(C2)Topheth or ^(C3)the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter.

"And I will ^(C1)frustrate the planning of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and ^(C2)I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will make their ^(C3)carcasses food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth.

"I will also turn this city into an object of ^(C1)horror and ^(F1)hissing; ^(C2)everyone who passes by it will be appalled and ^(F2)hiss because of all its ^(F3)disasters.

"And I will make them ^(C1)eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the siege and in the hardship with which their enemies and those who seek their life will torment them."'

"Then you are to break the ^(C1)jar in the sight of the men who accompany you,

and say to them, 'This is what the LORD of armies says: "To the same extent I will ^(C1)break this people and this city, just as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will ^(C2)bury their dead in Topheth, ^(F1)because there is no other place for burial.

"This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants," declares the LORD, "so as to make this city like Topheth.

"The ^(C1)houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be ^(C2)defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the ^(C3)houses on whose rooftops they burned ^(F1)sacrifices to ^(C4)all the heavenly ^(F2)lights and ^(C5)poured out drink offerings to other gods."'"

Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the ^(C1)courtyard of the LORD'S house and said to all the people,

"This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: 'Behold, I am going to bring on this city and all its towns the entire disaster that I have declared against it, because they have ^(C1)stiffened their necks so ^(C2)as not to listen to My words.'"