A reading from the book of Jeremiah.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.

So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel, 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.

Then the word of the Lord came to me.

O House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done, declares the Lord.

Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O House of Israel. If at any time I declare

concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, and if that

nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I

intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or kingdom that I will build

and planted, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good

that I had intended to do to it. Now therefore say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

thus says the Lord, behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan

against you. Return everyone from his evil way and amend your ways and your deeds. But they say,

that is in vain. We will follow our own plans and will everyone act according to the stubbornness

of his evil heart. 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. Does the snow of Lebanon

leave the crags of Syrian? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams? But my people

have forgotten me. They make offerings to false gods.

They made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads,

not the highway, making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes

by it is horrified and shakes his head. Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy.

I will show them my back, not my face, and the day of their calamity.

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