Background
Chapter 18 gives no date. The Bible Dictionary arranges chapters 7–20 under the reign of Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.), and the discourse of chapter 19, which follows directly, was delivered in his reign. The Bible Dictionary lists the opposition Jeremiah met: “the priests…, the mob…, his townsmen at Anathoth,” and later the king and the army.
The chapter is built like a short play. The Lord sends Jeremiah to a potter's workshop (verses 1–6); the potter's work becomes a statement about how the Lord deals with any nation (verses 7–10); Jeremiah delivers the message to Judah, which refuses it, and is told what refusal will cost (verses 11–17); and the people respond by plotting against him, to which he answers in a prayer (verses 18–23).
Jeremiah teaches with an object in each of chapters 18 and 19: here the potter reworks clay on the wheel; in chapter 19 a finished jar is broken. The Church's chapter heading sums up the first: “Israel is as potter's clay in the hands of the Lord—If nations repent, the Lord withholds the evil decreed against them—The people of Judah will be scattered.”
The thread through the chapter
Jeremiah 18 asks whether the Lord's word about a nation is fixed or can change, and answers that it depends on what the nation does. The potter is free: the clay in his hand becomes whatever “seemed good to the potter” (verse 4). When a vessel is spoiled the potter does not throw the clay away; he works it again. Verses 7–10 say what that means for nations: a warning of destruction is withdrawn if the nation turns from its evil, and a promise of blessing is withdrawn if the nation does evil. The message is conditional on both sides.
That is why the Lord says in verse 11 that He is “framing” evil against Judah and then at once says “return.” The word translated “potter” in verses 2–6 is the word translated “frame” in verse 11, so the Lord is shaping judgment as the potter shapes clay, and it can be reshaped if Judah turns. Judah's answer, “There is no hope,” refuses the potter's work (verse 12), and the chapter ends with the people shaping something of their own: a plot against the prophet who brought the message.
Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.
At the potter's house
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Get up and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” Jeremiah went down, and the potter was working at the wheels. The vessel he was making from clay was spoiled in his hand, so he made it again into another vessel, as seemed right to him. Then the Lord said, “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? Like clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.”
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
A word about any nation
“At any moment I may speak about a nation or kingdom, that I will pull it up and tear it down and destroy it. If that nation turns from the evil I spoke against, I will relent from the harm I planned to do it. And at any moment I may speak about a nation or kingdom, that I will build it and plant it. If it does evil in my sight and does not obey my voice, I will relent from the good I said I would do for it.”
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Judah's refusal
“Now tell the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord, I am shaping disaster against you and making a plan against you. Turn back, each of you, from your evil way, and make your ways and your deeds good.” But they say, “It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will do what his stubborn, evil heart wants.” So the Lord says, “Ask among the nations who has heard anything like this. The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing. Does the snow of Lebanon leave the rock of the field? Do the cold streams that flow from far away dry up? But my people have forgotten me. They burn incense to what is worthless, and it has made them stumble in their ways, off the ancient paths, onto side paths and a road not built up. So their land will be left desolate, an object of lasting scorn; everyone who passes will be appalled and shake his head. Like an east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their disaster.”
11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
The plot and the prayer
Then they said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah. The law will 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 pay no attention to anything he says.” Jeremiah prays: “Listen to me, Lord, and hear what my opponents are saying. Is good to be repaid with evil? They have dug a pit for my life. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn your anger away from them. So give their children to famine and hand them over to the sword; let their wives be childless and widowed, their men struck down by death, their young men killed in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring raiders on them, for they have dug a pit to catch me and hidden snares for my feet. But you, Lord, know all their plans to kill me. Do not forgive their guilt or wipe out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.”
18 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.
19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 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.
23 Yet, LORD, 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 thus with them in the time of thine anger.
Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 18
The potter who speaks in verses 6 and 11 is the Lord, “Jehovah in the Old Testament,” whom the Church identifies as Jesus Christ. Isaiah gives the people's side of the image: “thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter” (Isa. 64:8). Chapter 18's addition is that the Lord who shapes can also reshape: clay that spoils is not discarded but formed again, and a nation under warning is offered a way out as soon as it turns. Jeremiah himself is part of that offer: he has stood before the Lord “to speak good” for the people who now plot against him (verse 20).
Worth exploring next
- The next scene. Jer. 19 gives the finished jar that is broken and the valley of Hinnom; read it beside verses 1–6.
- Conditional prophecy. Jer. 26:13–19 shows the principle at work in Hezekiah's day; D&C 56:3–4 and D&C 58:30–33 state it for the latter days.
- The potter in the New Testament. Rom. 9:20–23 reuses the image.
- The earlier plot at Anathoth. Jer. 11:18–23.
- Further reading. Elder Jean A. Tefan's article “Jeremiah: As Potter's Clay” (Ensign, October 2002) follows Jeremiah's own life through the image.
This chapter elsewhere in scripture
- Mosiah 7:31; 12:6 — The Church edition's footnotes on Jeremiah 18:17 send the reader to the east wind in Limhi's and Abinadi's words.
Sources & further reading
- The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- Joseph Smith Translation, Jeremiah 26, Gospel Library.
- “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
- Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
- Jeremiah 18–19: Pottery and Judah, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide.
- Jean A. Tefan, “Jeremiah: As Potter’s Clay”, Ensign, October 2002, 11.
- Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Online at Bible Hub (Clarke's Commentary).
- Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
- Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
- Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.