Jeremiah 18:3

The potter's house] Clay from which pottery was made was found S. of Jerusalem: cp. Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:10. The potter teaches Jeremiah important lessons concerning the providential rule of the world. 'As I watched him shaping the pliant clay, remodelling the imperfect vessels until they conformed to his ideal, God revealed to me the manner in which He is able to mould at His will the nations. At the same time I realised that man may render God's work imperfect' (Sanders and Kent, 'Messages of the Earlier Prophets').

7-10. Predictions of good or evil were conditional on the moral state of those addressed.