Jeremiah 18:5-15

5Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. 7At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it ; 8If that nation, against which I have pronounced, shall turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. 9And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; 10If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

11Now therefore come, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a plot against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. 12And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. 13Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. 14Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?1 15Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;