Jeremiah 18:8

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. IF THAT NATION, AGAINST WHOM I HAVE PRONOUNCED, TURN FROM THEIR EVIL. Their is emphatically in antithesis to "the evil that I thought to do." I WILL REPENT. God herein adapts Himself to human conceptions. The change is not in God, but in the circumstances which regulate God's dealings: just as we say the land recedes from us when we sail forth, whereas it is we who recede from the land (; ). Gods unchangeable principle is to do the best that can be done under all circumstances; if, then, He did not take into account the moral change in His people (their prayers, repentance, turning from their evil way, etc.), He would not be act...

But the Prophet speaks first of punishment; _Suddenly_, he says, _will I speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to pull down, to extirpate and to destroy_; that is, even they who seem far from all danger shall find that they are exposed to my judgment. But _if a nation, _he says, _turns from its wickedness, against whom I have spoken, then I will repent of the evil_, etc. The Prophet no doubt intended to shut up the mouths of the Jews, who, as we have before seen, continually contended with God; for he could not convince them that the punishments were just which God inflicted on them for their sins. As then they were thus perverse in their wickedness, and hypocrisy also had hardened them the more, the Prophet says here in God’s name, “When I speak against a nation and threaten final ruin, if it repents, I shall be immediately reconciled to it; there is therefore no ground for the Jews to ex...

1-10 While Jeremiah looks upon the potter's work, God darts into his mind two great truths. God has authority, and power, to form and fashion kingdoms and nations as he pleases. He may dispose of us as he thinks fit; and it would be as absurd for us to dispute this, as for the clay to quarrel with the potter. But he always goes by fixed rules of justice and goodness. When God is coming against us in judgments, we may be sure it is for our sins; but sincere conversion from the evil of sin will prevent the evil of punishment, as to persons, and to families, and nations....

Verse Jeremiah 18:8. Jeremiah 18:7....

I WILL REPENT OF THE EVIL ... I WILL REPENT OF THE GOOD - All God’s dealings with mankind are here declared to be conditional. God changeth not, all depends upon man’s conduct....

EXPOSITION This chapter is the introduction of a group of prophecies (extending to Jeremiah 25:1.) of various dates; their sequence has evidently not been determined by chronological considerations. The prophet's first object is, perhaps, to refute the scoffing inquiry (Jeremiah 17:15), "What has become of the [threatening] word of Jehovah?" and to justify the glorious premise given at the conclusion of the last chapter. The fulfillment of threatenings and promises alike is conditioned by the moral attitude of the people (comp. Ezekiel 33:11). God, as it were, holds them in either hand, and there is still time (contrast...

IF THAT NATION AGAINST WHOM I HAVE PRONOUNCED,.... Such a sentence as this, should immediately, upon the above declaration, do as Nineveh did: TURN FROM THEIR EVIL; their evil of sin, their evil ways and works, as an evidence of the truth of their repentance for former sins: I WILL REPENT OF THE EVIL THAT ONE THOUGHT TO DO UNTO THEM; as they change their course of life, God will change the dispensations of his providence towards them, and not bring upon them the evil of punishment he threatened them with; in which sense repentance can only be understood of God, he doing that which is similar to what men do when they repent of anything; they stop their proceedings, and change their outward conduct; so God proceeds not to do what he threatened to do, and changes his outward behaviour to men; he wills a change, and makes one in his methods of acting, but never changes his will....

REPENT (_ See Scofield) - (Zechariah 8:14). _...

CHAPTER 18 The Potter and the Clay _ 1. In the potter's house and the message (Jeremiah 18:1) _ 2. The plot against the prophet and his prayer (Jeremiah 18:18) Jeremiah 18:1. He was commanded to go to the house of a potter and watch his work. The vessel Jeremiah sees fashioned out of clay is marred; it did not turn out well. Then the clay was taken up again and made in another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it. Then came the message: “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 my hand, O house of Israel.” If the creature of the dust can do as he pleases with the clay, how much

THE POTTER AND THE CLAY. The potter (Jeremiah 18:1) moulding his clay on the upper stone, which he makes revolve by his feet resting on the connected lower stone, is compared with Yahweh in His control of Israel (Jeremiah 18:5). The point of the comparison, as worked out in Jeremiah 18:7 ff_.,_ is not predestination (contrast Romans 9-11), but the conditionality of Yahweh's treatment of a nation, according as it turns to good or to evil (_cf._ the story of Jonah and Nineveh, also Ezekiel's individualism, Jeremiah 18:20 ff.). Judah, however, will not repent (with...