The Next Testament

Jeremiah 18–20: The Potter, the Smashed Jar, and "You Have Deceived Me, O LORD

Scripture: Berean Standard Bible

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will reveal my message to you.”

So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the wheel. But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed. But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.

And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom, and if it does evil in my sight and does not listen to my voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it.

Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”

Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“Inquire among the nations:Who has ever heard things like these?Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.Does the snow of Lebanonever leave its rocky slopes?Or do its cool waters flowing from a distanceever run dry?Yet my people have forgotten me.They burn incense to worthless idolsthat make them stumble in their ways,leaving the ancient roadsto walk on rutted bypathsinstead of on the highway.They have made their land a desolation,a perpetual object of scorn;all who pass by will be appalledand shake their heads.I will scatter them before the enemylike the east wind.I will show them my back and not my facein the day of their calamity.”

Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”

Attend to me, O LORD.Hear what my accusers are saying!Should good be repaid with evil?Yet they have dug a pit for me.Remember how I stood before youto speak good on their behalf,to turn your wrath from them.
Therefore, hand their children over to famine;pour out the power of the sword upon them.Let their wives become childless and widowed;let their husbands be slain by disease,their young men struck down by the sword in battle.Let a cry be heard from their houseswhen you suddenly bring raiders against them,for they have dug a pit to capture meand have hidden snares for my feet.
But you, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me.Do not wipe out their guiltor blot out their sin from your sight.Let them be overthrown before you;deal with them in the time of your anger.

This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests, and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate.

Proclaim there the words I speak to you, saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring, because they have abandoned me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter my mind.

So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you, and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and proclaimed to all the people, “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and on all the villages around it every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed my words.’ ”

When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword. I will give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried—you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.’ ”

you have deceived me, O LORD, and I was deceived.You have overcome me and prevailed.I am a laughingstock all day long;everyone mocks me.For whenever I speak, I cry out;I proclaim violence and destruction.For the word of the LORD has become to mea reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, “I will not mention himor speak any more in his name,”his message becomes a fire burning in my heart,shut up in my bones,and I become weary of holding it in,and I cannot prevail.For I have heard the whispering of many:“Terror is on every side!Report him; let us report him!”All my trusted friendswatch for my fall:“Perhaps he will be deceivedso that we may prevail against himand take our vengeance upon him.”
But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior.Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame,with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten.O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous,who sees the heart and mind,let me see your vengeance upon them,for to you I have committed my cause.
Sing to the LORD!Praise the LORD!For he rescues the life of the needyfrom the hands of evildoers.
Cursed be the day I was born!May the day my mother bore me never be blessed.Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,saying, “A son is born to you,”bringing him great joy.May that man be like the citiesthat the LORD overthrew without compassion.May he hear an outcry in the morningand a battle cry at noon,because he did not kill me in the wombso that my mother might have been my grave,and her womb forever enlarged.Why did I come out of the wombto see only trouble and sorrow,and to end my days in shame?