What does Jeremias Chapter 18 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The potter comparison precedes conditional nation judgments. Israel’s conduct and opponents’ counsels prompt lament. Intercession and requested judgment remain distinct from completed events.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 18 commands descent to the potter's house. A vessel worked at the wheel is broken and made into another as the potter pleases; Israel is compared to clay in his hand. Announced uprooting and destruction can be reconsidered when a nation repents, while announced building and planting can be withdrawn after disobedience. Juda must make ways good rather than answer that there is no hope and follow wicked hearts.

A question calls Israel's conduct horrible. Questions about Libanus's snow and cold waters accompany forgotten God and sacrifice to vanity, stumbling from ancient paths, desolate land and head-shaking passers. Burning wind scatters before enemies, and the Lord shows back rather than face. Opponents propose striking Jeremias with the tongue and ignoring his words, claiming priestly law, wise counsel and prophetic word remain.

Jeremias asks hearing, recalling his good and intercession repaid with a pit for his soul. He requests famine for children, bereavement and widowhood, husbands' death, young men's sword, and sudden attackers upon houses. Known snares prompt a request not to forgive or blot out sins and to act in anger. These requests are not silently converted to completed events. The edition's interpretation of the speaking person as Christ and persecutors as Jews is separately attributed, without supplying modern collective accusations, motives or years of intercession.

The story inside

Opening: The potter comparison precedes conditional nation judgments. Development: Israel’s conduct and opponents’ counsels prompt lament. Conclusion: Intercession and requested judgment remain distinct from completed events.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The potter comparison precedes conditional nation judgments.
2
Israel’s conduct and opponents’ counsels prompt lament.
3
Intercession and requested judgment remain distinct from completed events.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 85822–85844
18:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying: 18:2. Arise, and go down into the potter’s house, and there thou shalt hear my words. 18:3. And I went down into the potter’s house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel. 18:4. And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it. 18:5. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 18:6. Cannot I do with you, as this potter, O house of Israel, saith the Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 18:7. I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it. 18:8. If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.
Lines 85879–85892
18:18. And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words. 18:19. Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries. 18:20. Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for them, and to turn away thy indignation from them. Remember, etc.... This is spoken in the person of Christ, persecuted by the Jews, and prophetically denouncing the evils that should fall upon them in punishment of their crimes.