Down to the potter's house, where a marred vessel is simply made again as it seemed good to the potter: 'as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel' (18:6).

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Down to the potter's house, where a marred vessel is simply made again as it seemed good to the potter: 'as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel' (18:6). The lesson is not fatalism but responsiveness: if a nation I threatened turns from its evil, I repent of the evil; if a nation I promised to build does evil, I repent of the good. Judah answers, There is no hope; we will walk after our own devices. Does snow forsake Lebanon? Yet my people have forgotten me. The chapter closes with the plot ('let us smite him with the tongue') and the prophet's raw appeal for justice.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview

A. 1–12 The Potter's House: Marred Clay Made Again
B. 13–17 The Snow of Lebanon Forsaken; Stumbling in Bypaths
C. 18–23 Come, Let Us Smite Him with the Tongue

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Jeremiah 23 verses
- Jeremiah 2:25You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’
- Jeremiah 2:27say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’
- Jeremiah 2:32Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.
- Read Jeremiah 2 →
Jeremiah 182 verses
- Jeremiah 18:4But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.
- Jeremiah 18:6“O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
- Read Jeremiah 18 →
Ezekiel 182 verses
- Ezekiel 18:21But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.
- Ezekiel 18:24But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.
- Read Ezekiel 18 →
Hosea 112 verses
- Hosea 11:2But the more I called Israel, the farther they departed from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to carved images.
- Hosea 11:8How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!
- Read Hosea 11 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Jeremiah 112 verses
- Jeremiah 11:17The LORD of Hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you on account of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have brought upon themselves, provoking Me to anger by burning incense to Baal.”
- Jeremiah 11:19For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”
- Read Jeremiah 11 →
Jeremiah 72 verses
- Jeremiah 7:3Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place.
- Jeremiah 7:24Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- Read Jeremiah 7 →
Jeremiah 62 verses
- Jeremiah 6:16This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’
- Jeremiah 6:26O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- Read Jeremiah 6 →
Jeremiah 252 verses
- Jeremiah 25:9behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Jeremiah 25:34Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
- Read Jeremiah 25 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.