Jeremiah 18:1

(Chapter XVIII — Verses 1-6) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there you shall hear my words. So I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was working on a wheel (or stones). And the vessel that he was making of clay with his hands was spoiled in his hands; so he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to him to do.

There are two visions of Jeremiah that have just been read, one following the other. The former of these contains what concerns the clay vessel in the potter's hand, which admits of restoration after being broken (for it is possible for it to be remolded); but the other vision contains what concerns the earthen jug, which, once shattered, admits of no cure. For when it was clay, if it was broken — even if it had already been given its shape — since it was clay, it was possible for it to become a second lump and to be fashioned a second time; but when, after being clay, it has already become earthenware and has been hardened by fire, then it was not possible, after the shattering of the earthenware, for any cure to come to it. What, then, these things intend, let us first consider by way of reflection, and then, if it be granted, let us examine them according to the letter. As long as we are in this life, we are being shaped — that I may so name it, on account of our clay vessel — in a potter's fashion, and we are shaped either according to vice or according to virtue. Yet we are shaped in such a way as to admit both that our vice may be shattered, so that a new and better creature may come to be, and that our progress may be dissolved after its shaping into a clay vessel. But when, after the present age, we arrive, having come to the end of life, and then, once fired — whether by the fire of the flaming darts of the evil one we become whatever we become, or by the divine fire (since indeed "our God is a consuming fire") — if, I say, we come to be under such or such a fire, whatever we become, if we are shattered, whether we were shattered and have perished from having become good vessels, or from having become wretched vessels, we are not created anew, nor does our structure admit of improvement. […]

"Get up and go to the potter's house, and there you will hear my words." Here we have a parable about a potter meant to call Israel to repentance. As the potter makes from clay any vessel he likes, so God can easily change their …

), but that he certainly will do what is just and fair with them. If he threaten their ruin, yet upon their repentance he will return in mercy to them, and, when he is coming towards them in mercy, nothing but their sin will stop the progress of his favours,

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

In the first prophecy of the series Jer. 18, the fate of Jerusalem was still undetermined; a long line of kings might yet reign there in splendor, and the city be inhabited forever. This was possible only so long as it was still undecided whether Josiah’s efforts would end in a national reformation or not, and before Jehoiakim threw the weight of the kingly office into the opposite balance. In the present prophecy mercy is still offered to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but they reject it Jer 18:11-