Book 13 : NEVIIM - JEREMIAH - Chapter 018
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The word which came to Jeremiah from HaShem, saying
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'Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will
cause thee to hear My words.
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Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he was
at his work on the wheels
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And whensoever the vessel that he made of the clay was
marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed
good to the potter to make it
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Then the word of HaShem came to me, saying
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'O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?
saith HaShem. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, O
house of Israel
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At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and
concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it
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but if that nation turn from their evil, because of which I
have spoken against it, I repent of the evil that I thought to do unto it
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And at one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and
concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it
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but if it do evil in My sight, that it hearken not to My
voice, then I repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit it
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Now therefore do thou speak to the men of Judah, and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith HaShem: Behold, I frame evil
against you, and devise a device against you; return ye now every one from his
evil way, and amend your ways and your doings
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But they say: There is no hope; but we will walk after our
own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.
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Therefore thus saith HaShem: Ask ye now among the nations,
who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible
thing
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Doth the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field?
or are the strange cold flowing waters plucked up
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For My people hath forgotten Me, they offer unto vanity;
and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk
in bypaths, in a way not cast up
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To make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual
hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head
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I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy;
I will look upon their back, and not their face, in the day of their calamity
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Then said they: 'Come, and let us devise devices against
Jeremiah; for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the
wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue,
and let us not give heed to any of his words.
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Give heed to me, O HaShem, and hearken to the voice of
them that contend with me
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Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a
pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to
turn away Thy wrath from them
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Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and
hurl them to the power of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their
children, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men
smitten of the sword in battle
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Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt
bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid
snares for my feet
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Yet, HaShem, Thou knowest all their counsel against me to
slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from Thy sight;
but let them be made to stumble before Thee; deal Thou with them in the time of
Thine anger
Book 13 : NEVIIM - JEREMIAH - Chapter 018
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