5. Then the word of Adonai came to me, saying:
6. “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares Adonai. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
7. At one moment I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to uproot, to pull down or to destroy it.
8. But if that nation turns from their evil, because of what I have spoken against it, I will relent concerning the calamity that I planned to do to it.
9. Or at another time I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to build up or to plant it.
10. But if it does evil in My sight, not listening to My voice, then I will relent of the good that I had said I would do to it.”
11. So now, speak to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, thus says Adonai: “I am about to bring calamity against you, and devise disaster against you. Turn back now—everyone from his evil way—and amend your ways and your doings.
12. But they say: ‘It’s hopeless! So we will walk after our own plans, and each of us will act in the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”
13. Therefore thus says Adonai: “Ask now among the nations, whoever has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a most terrible thing.