The Parable of the Potter

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Go down to the house of a potter, and there I will impart My words to you.” ³So I went down to the house of a potter, and found him working at the wheel. ⁴And if the vessel he was making was spoiled, as happens to clay in the potter’s hands, he would make it into another vessel, such as the potter saw fit to make.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶O House of Israel, can I not deal with you like this potter?—says the Lord. Just like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hands, O House of Israel! ⁷At one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted and pulled down and destroyed; ⁸but if that nation against which I made the decree turns back from its wickedness, I change My mind concerning the punishment I planned to bring on it. ⁹At another moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be built and planted; ¹⁰but if it does what is displeasing to Me and does not obey Me, then I change My mind concerning the good I planned to bestow upon it.

¹¹And now, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus said the Lord: I am devising^a disaster for you and laying plans against you. Turn back, each of you, from your wicked ways, and mend your ways and your actions! ¹²But they will say, “It is no use. We will keep on following our own plans; each of us will act in the willfulness of his evil heart.”