1. This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2. Arise and go down to the potter’s house; there you will hear my word.
3. I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, working at the wheel.
4. Whenever the vessel of clay he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making another vessel of whatever sort he pleased.
5. Then the word of the Lord came to me:
6. Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done?—oracle of the Lord. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
7. At one moment I may decree concerning a nation or kingdom that I will uproot and tear down and destroy it;
8. but if that nation against whom I have decreed turns from its evil, then I will have a change of heart regarding the evil which I have decreed.