1. This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2. “Jeremiah, go down to the potter’s house. I will give you my message there.”
3. So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working with clay at the wheel.
4. He was making a pot from clay. But there was something wrong with the pot. So the potter used that clay to make another pot. With his hands he shaped the pot the way he wanted it to be.
5. Then this message from the Lord came to me:
6. “Family of Israel, you know that I can do the same thing with you. You are like the clay in the potter’s hands, and I am the potter.” This message is from the Lord.
7. “There may come a time when I will speak about a nation or a kingdom that I will pull up by its roots or tear down and destroy it.
8. But if the people of that nation change their hearts and lives and stop doing evil things, I will change my mind and not bring on them the disaster I planned.
9. There may come another time when I speak about a nation that I will build up or plant.
10. But if I see that nation doing evil things and not obeying me, I will think again about the good I had planned to do for them.
11. “So, Jeremiah, say to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am the potter preparing troubles for you and making plans against you. So stop doing the evil things you are doing. Each person must change and start doing good.’
12. But the people of Judah will answer, ‘We don’t care what you say. We will continue to do what we want. We will do the evil our stubborn hearts want.’”
13. Listen to what the Lord says: “Ask the other nations this question: ‘Have you ever heard of anything so bad?’ Israel, who is as dear to me as a young daughter, has done this terrible thing!
14. It is as strange as not finding snow on Lebanon’s mountains or seeing the cool streams that come from there stop flowing. That just does not happen!
15. But my people have forgotten me. They burn offerings to worthless idols. They have left the right way that their ancestors followed, and they stumble on the path they have chosen. Instead of staying on the good road I showed them, they prefer to walk on bumpy paths.