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Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 18:

The first of two prophetic actions involving pottery opens this chapter. Jeremiah watches how a potter can create a pot and, if necessary, destroy it and recreate the clay into something new. This represents how God, as the potter, can change the people’s fortunes. Whether the people are built up or broken down depends upon how they keep the covenant. The people have two responses. First, they speak of how they want to follow their own plans, and God lists many ways they have forsaken their relationship with Him. Second, the people threaten Jeremiah, and, rather than take matters into his own hands, Jeremiah pleads to God to give the people what they are due for their sins.

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 18:

The Potter and the Clay

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? says the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will repent of the good which I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.’

Israel’s Stubborn Idolatry

12 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and everyone will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13 “Therefore thus says the Lord: Ask among the nations,
who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done a very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion?
Do the mountain dfwaters run dry,
the cold flowing streams?
15 But my people have forgotten me,
they burn incense to false gods;
they have stumbled in their ways,
in the ancient roads,
and have gone into bypaths, not the highway,
16 making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever.
Every one who passes by it is horrified
and shakes his head.
17 Like the east wind I will scatter them
before the enemy.
I will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
Plots against Jeremiah
18 Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not heed any of his words.”
19 Give heed to me, O Lord, and listen to my plea. 20 Is evil a recompense for good?
Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword,
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
22 May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the marauder suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to take me,
and laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet, you, O Lord, know
all their plotting to slay me.
Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.

*Daily Lectio Divina Question:

“Like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.” (Jer 18:6) Lord, how are you calling us to be more like clay in your hands? Give us the courage to be formed into the saints you’re calling us to be.

Biblical Commentary provided by the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan, an adult faith formation apostolate. cbsmich.org/join

Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006).
Permission to use the RSV-2CE given for Bishop's Year of the Bible by Ignatius Press. Many thanks to Ignatius for this. If you're looking for a good Catholic edition of the Bible, look no further