---
title: "Jeremiah 18 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/jeremiah/18/
description: "As the clay in the hand of the potter, so is Israel in God's hand. He… Jeremiah 18 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Jeremiah 18

Jeremiah 18 is chapter 18 of 52 in the Book of Jeremiah. Here are all 23 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> As the clay in the hand of the potter, so is Israel in God's hand. He pardoneth penitents, and punisheth the obstinate. They conspire against Jeremias, for which he denounceth to them the miseries that hang over them.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Jeremiah 18 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
2. “Rise up and descend into the house of the potter, and there you will hear my words.”
3. And I descended into the house of the potter, and behold, he was making a work on the wheel.
4. And the vessel, which he was making with his hands out of clay, broke. And turning away, he made another vessel, for it had been pleasing in his eyes to make it.
5. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6. “Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done, says the Lord? Behold, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
7. Suddenly, I will speak against a nation and against a kingdom, so that I may uproot, and destroy, and scatter it.
8. If that nation, against which I have spoken, will repent from their evil, I too will repent from the evil that I have decided I would do to them.
9. And soon, I will speak about a nation and about a kingdom, so that I may build and plant it.
10. If it does evil in my sight, so as not to listen to my voice, I will repent of the good that I have said I would do to it.
11. Now, therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am forming an evil against you, and I am considering a plan against you. Let each one of you return from his evil way, and direct your ways and your intentions well.”
12. And they said: “We have lost hope. And so we will follow our own thoughts, and each of us will act according to the depravity of his own evil heart.”
13. For this reason, thus says the Lord: “Inquire among the Gentiles. Who has heard of such horrible things as the virgin of Israel has done to excess?
14. Do the snows of Lebanon fail to fall on the rocks of the field? Or are the cold waters, which burst forth and flow down, able to be rooted out?
15. Yet my people have forgotten me, offering useless libations, and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the world, so that they walk by these on an unmarked route.
16. And so their land has been given over to desolation and to perpetual hissing. Each one who passes by will be astonished and will shake his head.
17. Like a burning wind, I will disperse them in the sight the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their perdition.”
18. And they said: “Come, and let us devise a plan against Jeremiah. For the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor a sermon from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us pay no attention to any of his words.”
19. Attend to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.
20. Should evil be rendered for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul! Remember that I have stood in your sight, so as to speak on their behalf for good, and to avert your indignation from them.
21. Because of this, give their sons over to famine, and bring them to the hand of the sword. Let their wives be widows without children. And let their husbands be slain by death. Let their youths be stabbed with the sword in battle.
22. Let an outcry be heard from their houses. For you will lead the robber upon them suddenly. For they have dug a pit, so that they may seize me, and they have hidden snares for my feet.
23. But you, O Lord, know all their plans against me unto death. May you not forgive their iniquity, and do not allow their sin be taken away from your face. Let them be thrown down in your sight, in the time of your fury, so that you may destroy them.

## Jeremiah 18 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Verbum quod factum est ad Jeremiam a Domino, dicens:
2. Surge, et descende in domum figuli, et ibi audies verba mea.
3. Et descendi in domum figuli, et ecce ipse faciebat opus super rotam.
4. Et dissipatum est vas quod ipse faciebat e luto manibus suis: conversusque fecit illud vas alterum, sicut placuerat in oculis ejus ut faceret.
5. Et factum est verbum Domini ad me, dicens:
6. Numquid sicut figulus iste, non potero vobis facere, domus Israël? ait Dominus: ecce sicut lutum in manu figuli, sic vos in manu mea, domus Israël.
7. Repente loquar adversum gentem et adversus regnum, ut eradicem, et destruam, et disperdam illud:
8. si pœnitentiam egerit gens illa a malo suo quod locutus sum adversus eam, agam et ego pœnitentiam super malo quod cogitavi ut facerem ei.
9. Et subito loquar de gente et de regno, ut ædificem et plantem illud.
10. Si fecerit malum in oculis meis, ut non audiat vocem meam, pœnitentiam agam super bono quod locutus sum ut facerem ei.
11. Nunc ergo dic viro Juda, et habitatoribus Jerusalem, dicens: Hæc dicit Dominus: Ecce ego fingo contra vos malum, et cogito contra vos cogitationem: revertatur unusquisque a via sua mala, et dirigite vias vestras et studia vestra.
12. Qui dixerunt: Desperavimus: post cogitationes enim nostras ibimus, et unusquisque pravitatem cordis sui mali faciemus.
13. Ideo hæc dicit Dominus: Interrogate gentes: Quis audivit talia horribilia, quæ fecit nimis virgo Israël?
14. Numquid deficiet de petra agri nix Libani? aut evelli possunt aquæ erumpentes frigidæ, et defluentes?
15. Quia oblitus est mei populus meus, frustra libantes, et impingentes in viis suis, in semitis sæculi, ut ambularent per eas in itinere non trito,
16. ut fieret terra eorum in desolationem, et in sibilum sempiternum: omnis qui præterierit per eam obstupescet, et movebit caput suum.
17. Sicut ventus urens dispergam eos coram inimico: dorsum, et non faciem, ostendam eis in die perditionis eorum.
18. Et dixerunt: Venite, et cogitemus contra Jeremiam cogitationes: non enim peribit lex a sacerdote, neque consilium a sapiente, nec sermo a propheta: venite, et percutiamus eum lingua, et non attendamus ad universos sermones ejus.
19. Attende, Domine, ad me, et audi vocem adversariorum meorum.
20. Numquid redditur pro bono malum, quia foderunt foveam animæ meæ? Recordare quod steterim in conspectu tuo ut loquerer pro eis bonum, et averterem indignationem tuam ab eis.
21. Propterea da filios eorum in famem, et deduc eos in manus gladii: fiant uxores eorum absque liberis, et viduæ: et viri earum interficiantur morte: juvenes eorum confodiantur gladio in prælio:
22. audiatur clamor de domibus eorum: adduces enim super eos latronem repente, quia foderunt foveam ut caperent me, et laqueos absconderunt pedibus meis.
23. Tu autem, Domine, scis omne consilium eorum adversum me in mortem: ne propitieris iniquitati eorum, et peccatum eorum a facie tua non deleatur: fiant corruentes in conspectu tuo; in tempore furoris tui abutere eis.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 20: “Remember” … 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.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Wed, Feb 24, 2027: Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent — First Reading, Jeremiah 18:18-20
- Wed, Mar 15, 2028 (computed): Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent — First Reading, Jeremiah 18:18-20
- Thu, Aug 3, 2028 (computed): Thursday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Jeremiah 18:1-6

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).