Jeremiah 18 - Revised Standard Version(RSVCI)

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

2“Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.”

3So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.

4And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

5Then the word of the Lord came to me:

6

Do the mountain waters run dry,

the cold flowing streams?

15But my people have forgotten me,

they burn incense to false gods;

they have stumbled in their ways,

in the ancient roads,

and have gone into bypaths,

not the highway,

16making their land a horror,

a thing to be hissed at for ever.

Every one who passes by it is horrified

and shakes his head.

17Like the east wind I will scatter them

before the enemy.

I will show them my back, not my face,

in the day of their calamity.”

18Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words.”

19Give heed to me, O Lord,

and hearken to my plea.

20Is evil a recompense for good?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

Remember how I stood before thee

to speak good for them,

to turn away thy wrath from them.

21Therefore deliver up their children to famine;

give them over to the power of the sword,

let their wives become childless and widowed.

May their men meet death by pestilence,

their youths be slain by the sword in battle.

22May a cry be heard from their houses,

when thou bringest the marauder suddenly upon them!

For they have dug a pit to take me,

and laid snares for my feet.

23Yet, thou, O Lord, knowest

all their plotting to slay me.

Forgive not their iniquity,

nor blot out their sin from thy sight.

Let them be overthrown before thee;

deal with them in the time of thine anger.