Parallel Bible results for "Jeremiah 18"

Jeremiah 18

The Message Bible MSG

1 God told Jeremiah,

2 "Up on your feet! Go to the potter's house. When you get there, I'll tell you what I have to say."

3 So I went to the potter's house, and sure enough, the potter was there, working away at his wheel.

4 Whenever the pot the potter was working on turned out badly, as sometimes happens when you are working with clay, the potter would simply start over and use the same clay to make another pot.

5 Then God's Message came to me:

6 "Can't I do just as this potter does, people of Israel?" God's Decree! "Watch this potter. In the same way that this potter works his clay, I work on you, people of Israel.

7 At any moment I may decide to pull up a people or a country by the roots and get rid of them.

8 But if they repent of their wicked lives, I will think twice and start over with them.

9 At another time I might decide to plant a people or country,

10 but if they don't cooperate and won't listen to me, I will think again and give up on the plans I had for them.

11 "So, tell the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem my Message: 'Danger! I'm shaping doom against you, laying plans against you. Turn back from your doomed way of life. Straighten out your lives.'

12 "But they'll just say, 'Why should we? What's the point? We'll live just the way we've always lived, doom or no doom.'"

13 God's Message: "Ask around. Survey the godless nations. Has anyone heard the likes of this? Virgin Israel has become a slut!

14 Does snow disappear from the Lebanon peaks? Do alpine streams run dry?

15 But my people have left me to worship the Big Lie. They've gotten off the track, the old, well-worn trail, And now bushwhack through underbrush in a tangle of roots and vines.

16 Their land's going to end up a mess - a fool's memorial to be spit on. Travelers passing through will shake their heads in disbelief.

17 I'll scatter my people before their enemies, like autumn leaves in a high wind. On their day of doom, they'll stare at my back as I walk away, catching not so much as a glimpse of my face."

18 Some of the people said, "Come on, let's cook up a plot against Jeremiah. We'll still have the priests to teach us the law, wise counselors to give us advice, and prophets to tell us what God has to say. Come on, let's discredit him so we don't have to put up with him any longer."

19 And I said to God: "God, listen to me! Just listen to what my enemies are saying.

20 Should I get paid evil for good? That's what they're doing. They've made plans to kill me! Remember all the times I stood up for them before you, speaking up for them, trying to soften your anger?

21 But enough! Let their children starve! Let them be massacred in battle! Let their wives be childless and widowed, their friends die and their proud young men be killed.

22 Let cries of panic sound from their homes as you surprise them with war parties! They're all set to lynch me. The noose is practically around my neck!

23 But you know all this, God. You know they're determined to kill me. Don't whitewash their crimes, don't overlook a single sin! Round the bunch of them up before you. Strike while the iron of your anger is hot!"

New International Version NIV

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”

3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.

4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

5 Then the word of the LORD came to me.

6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.

7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,

8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.

9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,

10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’

12 But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’ ”

13 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard anything like this? A most horrible thing has been done by Virgin Israel.

14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? Do its cool waters from distant sources ever stop flowing?

15 Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths. They made them walk in byways, on roads not built up.

16 Their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.

17 Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster.”

18 They said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.”

19 Listen to me, LORD; hear what my accusers are saying!

20 Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them.

21 So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

23 But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.