Jeremiah 18:1-17

The Potter and the Clay

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

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

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

4 But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

6 “O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

7 At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed.

8 But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.

9 And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom,

10 and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it.

11 Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

12 But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

13 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard things like these? Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.

14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave its rocky slopes? Or do its cool waters flowing from a distance ever run dry?

15 Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway.

16 They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.

17 I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.”

Jeremiah 18:1-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 18

This chapter expresses the sovereign power of God ever his creatures, and his usual methods of dealing with them; it threatens destruction to the Jews for their idolatry; and is closed with the prophet's complaint of his persecutors, and with imprecations upon them. The sovereign power of God is expressed under the simile of a potter working in his shop, and making and marring vessels at pleasure, Jer 18:1-4; the application of which to God, and the house of Israel, is in Jer 18:5,6; and is illustrated by his usual dealings with kingdoms and nations; for though he is a sovereign Being, yet he acts both in a kind and equitable way; and as the potter changes his work, so he changes the dispensations of his providence, of which two instances are given; the one is, that having threatened ruin to a nation, upon their repentance and good behaviour he revokes the threatening, Jer 18:7,8; and the other is, that having made a declaration of good to a people, upon their sin and disobedience he recalls it, and punishes them for their wickedness, Jer 18:9,10; then follows a prophecy of the destruction of the Jews in particular, in which they are exhorted to repentance to prevent it; their obstinacy is observed; their folly in departing from God, and worshipping idols, is exposed; and they are threatened with utter ruin, Jer 18:11-17; the conspiracy and evil designs of the Jews against the prophet, their malice and ingratitude, are complained of by him, Jer 18:18-20; his imprecations upon them, and prayers for their destruction, are delivered out in Jer 18:21-23.