As the clay in the hand of the potter, so is Israel in God’s hand. He pardons penitents, and punishes the obstinate. They conspire against Jeremiah, for which he denounces to them the miseries that hang over them.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:

² “Rise up and descend into the house of the potter, and there you will hear my words.”

³ And I descended into the house of the potter, and behold, he was making a work on the wheel.

⁴ And the vessel, which he was making with his hands out of clay, broke. And turning away, he made another vessel, for it had been pleasing in his eyes to make it.

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

⁶ “Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done, says the Lord? Behold, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

⁷ Suddenly, I will speak against a nation and against a kingdom, so that I may uproot, and destroy, and scatter it.

⁸ If that nation, against which I have spoken, will repent from their evil, I too will repent from the evil that I have decided I would do to them.

⁹ And soon, I will speak about a nation and about a kingdom, so that I may build and plant it.

¹⁰ If it does evil in my sight, so as not to listen to my voice, I will repent of the good that I have said I would do to it.

¹¹ Now, therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am forming an evil against you, and I am considering a plan against you. Let each one of you return from his evil way, and direct your ways and your intentions well.”¹

1. 18:11The word malum can refer to moral evil, or it can refer to disaster, calamity, harm, and the like. Thus God is not planning to do moral evil, but to punish the unrepentant with afflictions.(Conte)

¹² And they said: “We have lost hope. And so we will follow our own thoughts, and each of us will act according to the depravity of his own evil heart.”

¹³ For this reason, thus says the Lord: “Inquire among the Gentiles. Who has heard of such horrible things as the virgin of Israel has done to excess?

¹⁴ Do the snows of Lebanon fail to fall on the rocks of the field? Or are the cold waters, which burst forth and flow down, able to be rooted out?

¹⁵ Yet my people have forgotten me, offering useless libations, and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the world, so that they walk by these on an unmarked route.

¹⁶ And so their land has been given over to desolation and to perpetual hissing. Each one who passes by will be astonished and will shake his head.

¹⁷ Like a burning wind, I will disperse them in the sight the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their perdition.”

¹⁸ And they said: “Come, and let us devise a plan against Jeremiah. For the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor a sermon from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us pay no attention to any of his words.”

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

²⁰ Should evil be rendered for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul! Remember that I have stood in your sight, so as to speak on their behalf for good, and to avert your indignation from them.¹

1. 18:20Remember, etc: This is spoken in the person of Christ, persecuted by the Jews, and prophetically denouncing the evils that should fall upon them in punishment of their crimes.(Challoner)

²¹ Because of this, give their sons over to famine, and bring them to the hand of the sword. Let their wives be widows without children. And let their husbands be slain by death. Let their youths be stabbed with the sword in battle.

²² Let an outcry be heard from their houses. For you will lead the robber upon them suddenly. For they have dug a pit, so that they may seize me, and they have hidden snares for my feet.

²³ But you, O Lord, know all their plans against me unto death. May you not forgive their iniquity, and do not allow their sin be taken away from your face. Let them be thrown down in your sight, in the time of your fury, so that you may destroy them.