Jeremiah 18:1-23
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.a
4 And the vessel that he made of clayb was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
11 Now therefore go to, 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 make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man leave the snowc of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law 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.
19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 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.
23 Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slayd me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.
The Potter and the Clay. The potter (Jeremiah 18:1) moulding his clay on the upper stone, which he makes revolve by his feet resting on the connected lower stone, is compared with Yahweh in His control of Israel (Jeremiah 18:5). The point of the comparison, as worked out in Jeremiah 18:7 ff., is not predestination (contrast Romans 9-11), but the conditionality of Yahweh's treatment of a nation, according as it turns to good or to evil (cf. the story of Jonah and Nineveh, also Ezekiel's individualism, Jeremiah 18:20 ff.). Judah, however, will not repent (with Jeremiah 18:12; cf. Jeremiah 2:25). Some commentators think that this application cannot be original, since the description of the potter's work (the tenses in Jeremiah 18:4 denote habitual practice) suggests rather the moulding of Judah into something useful after all. On this ground, Cornill dates Jeremiah 18:1 between 620 and 610. But Semitic parable is frequently employed to suggest a single point, the details being irrelevant, and often unsuitable, to the main truth. The prophet declares that Judah's conduct is unnatural, contrary to the steady course of nature (Jeremiah 18:14); the people have forsaken the good old road (Jeremiah 6:16) for unmade by-paths of futile idolatry (vanity; the idol gods being the antecedent of the following they, Jeremiah 18:15). Therefore Yahweh will scatter them with a sirocco-blast (east wind, Jeremiah 4:11), and turn His back to them (Jeremiah 18:17 mg.; cf. Jeremiah 2:27). In consequence of this prophecy, men plot (cf. Jeremiah 11:18 ff., Jeremiah 15:15 ff.) against the prophet, refusing to believe that the settled order of life will ever fail (Jeremiah 18:18 is probably proverbial; cf. Ezekiel 7:26), and slander him. He protests against this return of evil for good, and prays for vengeance on them.
Jeremiah 18:3. wheels: see Thomson, op. cit., p. 521, and cf. Sir_38:29-30.
Jeremiah 18:11. frame: the term used describes a potter's work.
Jeremiah 18:14 is difficult and probably corrupt; as it stands, the reference is to the unfailing snows and ever-flowing streams of Lebanon; cf. Ca. Jeremiah 4:15.
Jeremiah 18:21. death: denotes pestilence as in Jeremiah 15:2.