Jeremiah 18:1-20

At the Potter’s House

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?^[a]

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.

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Jeremiah 18:1-20 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 41

1. S Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9; Romans 9:20-21
2. S Genesis 2:7
3. Jeremiah 1:10
4. S Exodus 32:14; Psalms 25:11; Jeremiah 26:13; Jeremiah 36:3; John 3:8-10
5. Jeremiah 31:28; Jeremiah 42:10; Daniel 9:14; Ezekiel 18:21; Hosea 11:8-9; Joel 2:13; John 4:2
6. Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 31:28
7. Ezekiel 33:18
8. 1 Samuel 2:29-30; 1 Samuel 13:13
9. S Jeremiah 1:10
10. S 2 Kings 22:16; S Jeremiah 4:6
11. ver 18
12. S Deuteronomy 4:30; S 2 Kings 17:13; Isaiah 1:16-19
13. S Jeremiah 7:3
14. S Job 16:17
15. S Isaiah 57:10; Jeremiah 2:25
16. S Jeremiah 3:17
17. S Isaiah 66:8; Jeremiah 2:10
18. S Jeremiah 5:30
19. S 2 Kings 19:21
20. S Isaiah 17:10
21. S Isaiah 1:13; Jeremiah 44:15,19
22. Jeremiah 10:15; Jeremiah 51:18; Hosea 11:2
23. Ezekiel 44:12; Malachi 2:8
24. Jeremiah 6:16
25. S Isaiah 57:14; Isaiah 62:10
26. S Deuteronomy 28:37; Jeremiah 25:9; Ezekiel 33:28-29
27. Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 42:18
28. S Leviticus 26:32
29. S 2 Kings 19:21; S Job 16:4; Psalms 22:7; Lamentations 1:12
30. S Job 7:10; Jeremiah 13:24
31. S 2 Chronicles 29:6; S Jeremiah 2:27
32. ver 11; Jeremiah 11:19
33. Jeremiah 2:8; Haggai 2:11; Malachi 2:7
34. S Job 5:13; Ezekiel 7:26
35. Jeremiah 5:13
36. Psalms 52:2; Psalms 64:2-8; S Jeremiah 9:3
37. Psalms 71:13
38. S Genesis 44:4
39. Psalms 35:7; Psalms 57:6; S Psalms 119:85
40. Jeremiah 15:1
41. S Genesis 20:7; S Deuteronomy 9:19; Psalms 106:23; Jeremiah 14:7-9

Footnotes 1

[a]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.