5. Then the Lord’s word came to me, saying,
6. “House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
7. At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;
8. if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
9. At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10. if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit them.
11. “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘the Lord says: “Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a plan against you. Everyone return from his evil way now, and amend your ways and your doings.”’
12. But they say, ‘It is in vain; for we will walk after our own plans, and we will each follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”
13. Therefore the Lord says:“Ask now amongst the nations,‘Who has heard such things?’The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14. Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field?Will the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?
15. For my people have forgotten me.They have burnt incense to false gods.They have been made to stumble in their ways,in the ancient paths,to walk in byways, in a way not built up;
16. to make their land an astonishment,and a perpetual hissing.Everyone who passes thereby will be astonished,and shake his head.
17. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy.I will show them the back, and not the face,in the day of their calamity.