Jer 18, Jer 22 | ESV | STEP | The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord :

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to ^athe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to ^bthe potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was ^cspoiled in the potter’s hand, and ^dhe reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, ^ecan I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^fBehold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^gpluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^hturns from its evil, ⁱI will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^jbuild and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^kReturn, every one from his evil way, and ^lamend your ways and your deeds.’

12 “But they say, ^m‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ⁿthe stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
^oAsk among the nations,
Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done ^pa very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion? ^{▼▼Hebrew of the field}
Do the mountain waters run dry, ^{▼▼Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up}
the cold flowing streams?
15 ^sBut my people have forgotten me;
they make offerings to ^tfalse gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
^uin the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
^vnot the highway,
16 making their land ^wa horror,
a thing ^xto be hissed at forever.
^yEveryone who passes by it is horrified
^zand shakes his head.
17 ^aaLike the east wind ^abI will scatter them
before the enemy.
^acI will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
18 Then they said, ^ad“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^aefor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^afCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O Lord,
and ^aglisten to the voice of my adversaries.
20 ^ahShould good be repaid with evil?
Yet ^aithey have dug a pit for my life.
^ajRemember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore ^akdeliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ^aland widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 ^amMay a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For ^anthey have dug a pit to take me
^aoand laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet ^apyou, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
^aqForgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.

Jeremiah 22

1 Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2 and say, ^ar‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: ^asDo justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And ^atdo no wrong or violence ^auto the resident alien, ^avthe fatherless, and the widow, nor ^awshed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, ^axthen there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I ^ayswear by myself, declares the Lord, that ^azthis house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:

“‘You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of ^baLebanon,
yet surely I will make you a desert,
^bban uninhabited city. ^{▼▼Hebrew cities}
7 ^bdI will prepare destroyers against you,
each with his weapons,
^beand they shall cut down your choicest cedars
and cast them into the fire.
8 “‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, ^bf“Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?” 9 ^bgAnd they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”

10 ^bhWeep not for him who is dead,
nor grieve for him,
^bibut weep bitterly for him who goes away,
for he shall return no more
to see his native land.

Message to the Sons of Josiah

11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and ^bjwho went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, 12 but ^bkin the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”

13 ^bl“Woe to him who builds his house by ^bmunrighteousness,
and his upper rooms by injustice,
^bnwho makes his neighbor serve him for nothing
and does not give him his wages,
14 who says, ‘I will build myself a great house
with spacious upper rooms,’
who cuts out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar
and ^bopainting it with vermilion.
15 Do you think you are a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and ^bpdo justice and righteousness?
^bqThen it was well with him.
16 ^brHe judged the cause of the poor and needy;
^bsthen it was well.
Is not this ^btto know me?
declares the Lord.
17 But you have eyes and heart
only for your dishonest gain,
^bufor shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.”
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

^bv“They shall not lament for him, saying,
^bw‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’
They shall not lament for him, saying,
^bx‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’
19 With the burial of a donkey ^byhe shall be buried,
dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
20 “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,
and lift up your voice in Bashan;
cry out from ^bzAbarim,
for all ^cayour lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, ‘I will not listen.’
^cbThis has been your way from ^ccyour youth,
that you have not obeyed my voice.
22 ^cdThe wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
and ^ceyour lovers shall go into captivity;
^cfthen you will be ashamed and confounded
because of all your evil.
23 O inhabitant of ^cgLebanon,
nested among the cedars,
how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,
^chpain as of a woman in labor!”
24 ^ci“As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were ^cjthe signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25 and ^ckgive you ^clinto the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 ^cmI will hurl you and ^cnthe mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”

28 Is this man ^coConiah a despised, broken pot,
a ^cpvessel no one cares for?
Why are he and his children hurled and cast
into a ^cqland that they do not know?
29 ^crO land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord!
30 Thus says the Lord:
“Write this man down as ^cschildless,
a man who shall not succeed in his days,
^ctfor none of his offspring shall succeed
^cuin sitting on the throne of David
and ruling again in Judah.”