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Jeremiah 18

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The Potter and the Clay 1–6

1
The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ​
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Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. ​
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Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he was making a work on the wheels.
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And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. ​
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Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
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O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. ​

The Principle of Conditional Judgment 7–10

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At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; ​
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if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. ​
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And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
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if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

Judah Refuses to Repent 11–12

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Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. ​
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But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart. ​

The Horror of Israel's Apostasy 13–17

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Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. ​
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Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? ​
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For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; ​
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to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
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I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. ​

Conspiracy and Jeremiah's Imprecation 18–23

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Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. ​
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Give heed to me, O Jehovah, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
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Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them. ​
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Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men smitten of the sword in battle. ​
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Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
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Yet, Jehovah, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight; but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thou with them in the time of thine anger. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Jeremiah 18

Verse 1

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD — The opening is that of Jer 7:1 and 11:1, each of which begins a new message. Chapters 18 and 19 are a pair: the potter at his wheel here, and in Jer 19:1 the prophet told to 'get a potter's earthen bottle' and break it. The first is a lesson in the LORD's ways with nations, the second its sentence.

Verse 2

the potter's house — The potter is yotser, 'one who forms', from the verb used of the LORD forming man 'of the dust of the ground' (Gen 2:7). The prophet goes down to hear the word in the workshop: 'there I will cause thee to hear my words'. The same verb returns in v.11, 'Behold, I frame evil against you'.

Verse 4

marred in the hand of the potter — 'Marred' is shachath, the verb of the ruined girdle in 13:7. The potter does not discard the clay: he 'made it again' (shuv, to return) into 'another vessel', as it seemed right in his eyes. Isa 45:9 and Rom 9:20 warn against the clay questioning the one who shapes it.

Verse 6

as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand — The application is made to 'the house of Israel': the LORD may deal with a people as the potter with his clay. Isa 64:8 turns it into a prayer, 'we are the clay, and thou our potter', and Paul draws on the picture in Rom 9:21, 'Hath not the potter power over the clay'.

Verse 7

to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it — The three verbs are those of the prophet's call (Jer 1:10), nathash, nathats and abad, and 'build' and 'plant' in v.9 complete the pair. The principle covers 'a nation… and a kingdom' alike, and 'at what instant' (rega) means that the LORD may act in a moment.

Verse 8

I will repent of the evil — 'Repent' is nacham, the verb of 15:6, 'I am weary with repenting'. The turning of a nation from its evil changes what the LORD does, as at Nineveh: 'God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not' (Jonah 3:10). Jer 26:3 and 26:13 apply the same rule to Judah.

Verse 11

Behold, I frame evil against you — 'Frame' is yatsar, the potter's verb of v.2: the LORD shapes the judgment. 'Devise a device' uses chashav and machashavah, words the people then use of their own plans in vv.12 and 18. 'Make your ways and your doings good' is the plea of Jer 7:3 and Jer 35:15, 'Return ye now every man from his evil way'.

Verse 12

There is no hope — The one Hebrew verb, yaash, is the people's despair, as in Jer 2:25 and Isa 57:10. They answer the LORD's 'device' (v.11) with 'our own devices' (machashavah), and with 'the imagination of his evil heart', sheriruth, the word of 16:12, 7:24 and 3:17.

Verse 13

the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing — 'Horrible thing' is sha'arurah, used four times in the Bible, three of them in Jeremiah (5:30; 18:13; 23:14) and once in Hos 6:10. 'Ask ye now among the heathen' is the appeal made in Jer 2:10–11, which sends the hearer to Chittim and Kedar to see 'if there be such a thing'.

Verse 14

the snow of Lebanon — The question compares the people's leaving of the LORD to leaving a spring that never fails for strange waters. 'Forsaken' is nathash, the 'pluck up' of v.7; the same verb is translated 'pluck up' in v.7. Jer 2:13 states it plainly: 'they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters'.

Verse 15

the ancient paths — Jer 6:16 offers them: 'ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.' 'Vanity' (shav) is what they burn incense to. 'Not cast up' is salal, a road built up, as in Isa 57:14, 'Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way'.

Verse 17

I will shew them the back, and not the face — They had 'turned their back unto me, and not their face' (Jer 2:27), and now it is turned on them. 'East wind' (qadim) is the wind that breaks 'the ships of Tarshish' (Ps 48:7) and carries away the wicked (Job 27:21). 'Calamity' (eid) is the 'day of their calamity' of Deut 32:35.

Verse 18

let us devise devices against Jeremiah — The same machashavah as in vv.11–12: they plan against the prophet as the LORD plans against them. Their boast, 'the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet', is answered in Ezek 7:26, 'the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients'.

Verse 20

they have digged a pit for my soul — The pit is the figure of Ps 35:7 and 57:6, and the question 'Shall evil be recompensed for good?' is that of Ps 35:12, 'They rewarded me evil for good'. 'I stood before thee to speak good for them' is the intercession Moses made 'in the breach, to turn away his wrath' (Ps 106:23), and the standing of 15:1 and 19. 'Turn away' is shuv.

Verse 21

deliver up their children to the famine — The words are those of the judgment already spoken: the men of Anathoth who sought his life were told 'their sons and their daughters shall die by famine' (Jer 11:21–22). The pattern of sword, famine and widows is that of Ps 109:9, 'Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow'.

Verse 23

thou knowest all their counsel — 'Thou knowest' is the prophet's plea here and in 12:3 and 15:15. 'Blot out' is machah, as in Ps 69:28, 'Let them be blotted out of the book of the living'. 'Overthrown' is kashal, to stumble, the verb for the people stumbling 'from the ancient paths' in v.15; they stumble, and now he asks that they fall.