A STREET IN JERUSALEM, WITH THE HOUSES BUILT OVER THE STREET.
Then the Lord said unto me, "Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness; because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them. For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee."
II
THE POTTER AND HIS CLAY
(The people of the East, where the prophets lived and spoke, understood teaching which was put before them in the form of pictures and images and symbols better than any other way. So the prophets would often use figures of speech and do striking things to attract the attention of the people. One day Jeremiah went to the workshop of the potter, and found him at work with [{302}] his wheel. This is the way in which he used what he saw to teach the people of God's power over them):--
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words."
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought his work on the wheels. 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.