Jeremiah 18:5-15

5Then the word of Adonai came to me, saying:

6“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares Adonai. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

7At one moment I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to uproot, to pull down or to destroy it.

8But if that nation turns from their evil, because of what I have spoken against it, I will relent concerning the calamity that I planned to do to it.

9Or at another time I may speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to build up or to plant it.

10But if it does evil in My sight, not listening to My voice, then I will relent of the good that I had said I would do to it.”

11So now, speak to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, thus says Adonai: “I am about to bring calamity against you, and devise disaster against you. Turn back now—everyone from his evil way—and amend your ways and your doings.

12But they say: ‘It’s hopeless! So we will walk after our own plans, and each of us will act in the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

13Therefore thus says Adonai: “Ask now among the nations, whoever has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a most terrible thing.

14Does the snow of Lebanon abandon the rock of the field? Or is the cold water flowing from afar pulled back?

15Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to a delusion and stumble in their ways— off the ancient paths— to walk on side-tracks, rather than a built-up highway.