:
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. 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. 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. 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.
[AD 373] Ephrem the Syrian on Jeremiah 18:1-2
“Get up and go to the potter’s house, and there you will hear my words.” Here we have a parable about a potter meant to call Israel to repentance. As the potter makes from clay any vessel he likes, so God can easily change their state of events, turning disaster into joy. If Israel does not give up its hypocrisy, the Lord will frighten them with great calamities.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:1-10
(Chapter XVIII — Verses 1 and following) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there you shall hear my words. So I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was working on a wheel (or stones). And the vessel that he was making of clay with his hands was spoiled in his hands; so he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to him to do. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Can I not do with you, house of Israel, as this potter does? (Vulgate: Can I not, according to the Hebrew?) The Lord says, behold, as clay in the hand of a potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. Suddenly (or at the highest point), I will speak against a nation and against a kingdom, to uproot (or remove) and to destroy, and to utterly destroy it. If that nation turns away from the evil that I have spoken against it, I will relent and not carry out the harm that I planned to do to it. And suddenly (or at the highest point), I will speak about a nation and a kingdom, to build and to plant it. If he does evil in my eyes, so that he does not hear my voice, I will repent of the good that I have spoken to do to him. It is through all the senses that one arrives at the judgment and understanding of the mind, through hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, but it is retained more by the mind, which is seen by the eyes. Hence, the Prophet is commanded to go to the house of the potter and there to hear the commandments of the Lord. And when, he says, I had gone and descended into the house of the potter, he himself was working on the wheel, which, enticed by the ambiguity of the seventy-word, the stones were moved. For by Abanim, that is, the wheel of the potter, is meant the quality and diversity of the place and the pronunciation, and the instrument, that is, the wheel of the potter, and the stones. And when, he said, I saw a vessel being made of clay, suddenly it was dissipated, by the providence of God acting, so that the hand of the craftsman, while unaware, would shape a parable by its own mistake. And that potter, who had lost the vessel made of clay, with the wheel spinning, made another for himself as he saw fit. And immediately the Lord said to the Prophet: If the potter, he said, has the power to make again from the same clay what had been dissipated: I, in you, who as far as is possible in you, seem to have perished, will I not be able to do this? And in order to signify free will, he says that he both announces evil to a nation and kingdom, or to that one, and again good things: yet not that this will actually happen that he himself has predicted; but rather the opposite will occur, so that good things happen to evil people if they have repented, and bad things happen to good people if they have turned to sin after making promises. And we say this, not because God is unaware that this or that nation or kingdom will come into existence, but because he allows a person to follow their own will, so that they may receive rewards or punishments according to their own choice and their own merit. Not immediately will everything that happens be the accomplishment of man, but of his grace who has bestowed all things: so that the freedom of choice must be reserved, in such a way that the grace of the bestower excels in all things, according to that prophetic saying: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, he watches in vain who guards it (Psalm 126:1-2). For it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Romans 9).

[AD 311] Methodius of Olympus on Jeremiah 18:3-6
The prophet Jeremiah addresses the Jews in these words: “And I went down to the potter’s house. Behold, he made a work on the stones. The vessel that he made in his hands was broken. Again he made another vessel, as it pleased him to make it. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Cannot I do to you as this potter, O house of Israel? Behold, you are like the clay of the potter in my hands.’ ” For I call your attention to this, that, as I said, after human transgression the great Hand was not content to leave as a trophy of victory its own work, debased by the evil one, who wickedly injured it from motives of envy, but moistened and reduced it to clay, as a potter breaks up a vessel, that by the remodeling of it all the blemishes and bruises in it may disappear, and it may be made afresh faultless and pleasing.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Jeremiah 18:3-6
When, therefore, God speaks of an irremediable calamity, he does not say vessels of the potter, but an earthen vessel. When, for instance, he wished to teach the prophet and the Jews that he delivered up the city to an irremediable calamity, he bade him take an earthen wine vessel, and crush it before all the people and say, “Thus shall this city be destroyed, be broken in pieces.” But when he wishes to hold out good hopes to them, he brings the prophet to a pottery and does not show him an earthen vessel but shows him a vessel of clay, which was in the hands of the potter, falling to the ground. He brings him to saying, “If this potter has taken up and remodeled his vessel that has fallen, shall I not much rather be able to restore you when you have fallen?” It is possible therefore for God not only to restore those who are made of clay, through the washing of regeneration, but also to bring back again to their original state, on their careful repentance, those who have received the power of the Spirit and have fallen from grace into ruin.

[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Jeremiah 18:3-6
What do you mean, Paul? Am I to be subject to God in the same way the clay is to the potter? Yes, Paul says. For the distance between God and man is as great as the distance between the potter and the clay. Rather the distance is not merely as great but much greater. The potter and the clay are of one and the same substance. It is just as Job said: “I admit it as for those who dwell in houses of clay, because we are ourselves formed from the same clay.” If a man seems more beautiful to look upon than clay, this difference was not produced by a change of nature but by the wisdom of the craftsman. Why? Because you are no different from the clay. If you refuse to believe this, let the coffins and the cremation urn convince you. And you will know that this is the truth if you have gone to visit the tombs of your ancestors. Therefore, there is no difference between the clay and the potter.

[AD 411] Tyrannius Rufinus on Jeremiah 18:3-6
By his passion, therefore, Christ made perfect that human flesh that had been brought down to death by the first man’s sin and restored it by the power of his resurrection. Sitting on God’s right hand, he placed it in the highest heavens. In view of this, the apostle says, “Who has raised us up together and has made us sit together in the heavenly places.” It was he, you see, who was the potter mentioned by the prophet Jeremiah: “The vessel that had fallen from his hand and was broken, he again raised up with his hands and formed anew, as it seemed good in his eyes.” So it seemed good to him to raise the mortal and corruptible body he had assumed from the rocky tomb, and, rendering it immortal and incorruptible, to place it no longer in an earthly environment but in heaven at his Father’s right hand.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:3-6
Whatever is discerned by the eyes arrives to the judgment and understanding of the soul through every other sense, through hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, but is retained even more so by the mind. Thus, the prophet was commanded to go to the potter’s house and there to hear the instructions of the Lord. “When,” he says, “I arose and went down to the potter’s house, he was making something on the wheel,” which the Seventy translated with the ambiguous and misleading word “stones,” for abanim and organum, both meaning “potter’s wheel,” are sometimes called stones, depending on the region and local dialect. “When,” he continues, “I discerned that the vessel that he was making out of clay suddenly fell apart,” this occurred by the providential agency of God, that the artisan’s hand, unwittingly, would create a parable by its mistake. Then the potter who had destroyed his clay vessel on the turning wheel made of it something else, as seemed to him the thing to do. And immediately the Lord said to the prophet, “If this potter has such power that he can remake something out of the same clay that disintegrated, am I not able to do the same for you who seem to have perished?” Moreover, that he might signify thereby the freedom of the will, the Lord said that he would announce punishments and rewards to the nations and to this king or that king. It was not that these events that he had predicted were to happen, but rather that good may be brought out of evil if they repented, or evil brought out of good if, after their resolutions, they returned to sin. Our point here is not that God was ignorant of what the nations and kings would do, but rather that he had endowed the human person with his own will, so that he would receive either a reward or a punishment on the basis of his own merit. Yet, what happens is not entirely dependent on a person, but also the grace that God has bestowed on all, for the freedom of the will must be restrained so that the grace of the Giver would excel in all things, according to the prophecy: “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor for nothing; unless the Lord keeps the city, do the guards watch over it in vain.” For “it is not of the one who wills or of the one who runs, but of the God who has mercy.”

[AD 458] Theodoret of Cyrus on Jeremiah 18:3-6
Do not despair of salvation, God is saying. Even if I condemn a nation and threaten ultimate punishment, if I see their repentance, I extend mercy instead of inflicting punishment. If I promise an abundance of blessings, but they scorn me and embrace wickedness, I shall not fulfill the promise of blessings. Knowing this, then, do not despair of better things, but apply repentance and reap salvation.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:7-8
[Daniel 4:27] "'Wherefore, O king, let my counsel meet with thy favor, and make up for thy sins by deeds of charity, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps God will forgive thy transgressions.'" Since he had previously pronounced the sentence of God, which of course cannot be altered, how could he exhort the king to deeds of charity and acts of mercy towards the poor? This difficulty is easily solved by reference to the example of King Hezekiah, who Isaiah had said was going to die (Isaiah 38:1); and again, to the example of the Ninevites, to whom it was said: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed" (Jonah 3:4). And yet the sentence of God was changed in response to the prayers of Hezekiah and the city of Nineveh, not by any means because of the ineffectualness of the judgment itself but because of the conversion of those who merited pardon. Morever in Jeremiah God states that He threatens evil for the nation (Jeremiah 18:7-8), but if it does that which is good, He will alter His threats to bestow mercy. Again, He affirms that He directs His promises to the man who does good; and if the same man thereafter works evil, He says that He changes His decision, not with regard to the men themselves, but with regard to their works which have thus changed in character. For after all, God is not angered at men but at their sins; and when no sins inhere in a man, God by no means inflicts a punishment which has been commuted. In other words, let us say that Nebuchadnezzar performed deeds of mercy toward the poor in accordance with Daniel's advice, and for that reason the sentence against him was delayed of execution for twelve months. But because he afterwards while walking about in his palace at Babylon said boastingly: "Is this not the great Babylon which I myself have built up as a home for the king by the might of my power and the glory of my name?" therefore he lost the virtue of his charitableness by reason of the wickedness of his pride.

"It may be that God will forgive thy sins." In view of the fact that the blessed Daniel, foreknowing the future as he did, had doubts concerning God's decision, it is very rash on the part of those who boldly promise pardon to sinners. And yet it should be recognized that indulgence was promised to Nebuchadnezzar in return, as long as he wrought good works. Much more, then, is it promised to other men who have committed less grievous sins than he. We read in Jeremiah also of God's direction to the people of the Jews, that they should pray for the Babylonians, inasmuch as the peace of the captives was bound up with the peace of the captors themselves (Jeremiah 29:7).

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:7-8
You may as well accuse God of falsehood because he said by the mouth of Jonah: “Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” But God will reply by the mouth of Jeremiah, “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to break down and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it does evil in my sight, that it obeys not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Jonah, on a certain occasion, was indignant because, at God’s command, he had spoken falsely; but his sorrow was proved to be ill founded, since he would rather speak truth and have a countless multitude perish than speak falsely and have them saved.

[AD 542] Caesarius of Arles on Jeremiah 18:7-8
If only the sinner would have recourse to repentance as quickly as God is willing to change that fixed sentence. Listen to the Lord through the prophet promise the greatest hope to the human race: “Finally I shall speak against a nation and against a kingdom, to root out and destroy them. If that nation shall turn from all of their evil deeds, I also shall repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.” Behold how great is our God’s goodness to us, and learn whether he will refuse his mercy, since he longs to change his sentence if we are converted. Therefore, let us turn to him, dearly beloved, and not wish to defer the amendment of our ways until the end of our life.

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Jeremiah 18:10
God, who does not repent, is said to repent according to the Scripture.… Concerning the repentance of God, we are demanded to defend ourselves. To repent seems to be culpable and unworthy not only of God but also of the wise person. For I cannot conceive of a wise person repenting. Rather, when a person repents, supposing the customary use of the word, he repents for not having decided to be good. But God, who knows in advance what happens in the future, is unable not to have decided to be good and to repent for this. How, then, has the Scripture brought forth this phrase that says, “I will repent”?… Whenever the Scriptures speak theologically about God in relation to himself and do not involve his plan for human matters, they say that he is “not as a human.” … But whenever the divine plan involves human matters, it carries the human intellect and manners and way of speaking. If we are talking with a two-year-old child, we speak inarticulately because of the child.… Something of this sort also seems to me the case with God, whenever he manages the race of humankind and especially those still infants.… If any of us should hear those who talk to children, will he say that this old person has become senseless, this man has forgotten his beard, the age of a person? Or is it granted that out of consideration when he converses with the child he does not speak in an elderly or adult language but in a childlike language?

[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Jeremiah 18:10
Since we really do repent, when he talks with us who repent God says, “I repent,” and when he threatens us, he does not pretend to know in advance, but he threatens as one speaking to babes. He does not pretend that he knows all things before their generation, but as one who, so to speak, plays the part of a babe, he pretends not to know the future. And he threatens the nation on account of its sins and says, “If the nation repents, I will repent.” O God, when you were threatening, did you not know in advance whether the nation will or will not repent? When you were promising, did you not know whether the person or the nation to whom the word is directed does not remain worthy of the promises? Yes, of course, but he pretends.

[AD 220] Tertullian on Jeremiah 18:11
I affirm that “wickedness” in this context does not signify something that can be referred to the Creator’s nature, as though he were evil, but to his authority, because he is a judge. It was in view of this that he declared, “It is I who create evils,” and, “Behold, I send evils against you.” These are not evils of ill doing but evils of vengeance—and I have already cleared away the ill repute of these by showing them to be fit and proper for a judge. As then, though described as evils, they are no matter of disrepute in a judge, nor by being so described do they stigmatize the judge as evil, so also “wickedness” in this context must now be understood as that which, deriving from those judiciary evils, is along with them proper to a judge.… As then his purpose, being a just one, was not evil, he had decided on it for justice’s sake, not from wickedness. Yet the Scripture has described the punishment itself as “wickedness” because of the well-deserved evil of what they were to suffer.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:11-13
(Vers. 11-13.) Now therefore say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising evil 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 every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore, thus says the Lord: Inquire of the nations, who has heard such dreadful things, which the virgin of Israel has done exceedingly? The Lord fulfills the parable which He had taught by both His words and His appearance, and He says: Behold, I am devising evil against you, like a potter shaping clay. But the evil mentioned by Isaiah, who says, 'Making peace and creating evil' (Isa. 45:7), is not evil in itself, but appears as evil to those who suffer it. And I am pondering a plan against you, that is, to pass judgment according to your deserts. Change your ways, and direct your paths, so that punishment may be changed to prosperity. Those, he said, who have spoken otherwise: We will be strengthened, namely in evil works, or according to Aquila, we have despaired, and according to Symmachus, we have fallen away, both of which offend God; so that either he thinks he cannot be saved at all, or he has fallen away in his mind to appease God. And after our thoughts, he said, we will go. Where then is there free will without the grace of God, and judgment of one's own will, when it is a great offense to follow one's own thoughts and to do the will of an evil heart? Therefore he brings this forward, saying: Inquire of the nations, and all the nations around, who has done this, who has heard of serving idols, what great things the virgin Israel has done? And he calls her a virgin because she has served only one God, as the Prophet says: God is known in Judah, his name is great in Israel (Psalm 75:2).

[AD 379] Basil of Caesarea on Jeremiah 18:13
Who would not grieve over such things and say, “How is the faithful city become a harlot?” How would not the Lord say to some of those who are now walking in the spirit of Jeremiah, “Have you seen what the virgin of Israel has done to me?” I betrothed her to me in trust, in purity, in righteousness, in judgment, in pity, and in mercy; as I promised her through Hosea the prophet. But she loved strangers, and while I, her husband, was yet alive, she is called adulteress and is not afraid to belong to another husband.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:14
(Verse 14.) Will the snow of Lebanon's mountain fail from the rock of the field? Or can the rushing, cold waters be removed? Septuagint: Will the breasts fail from the rock, or the snow from Lebanon, or will the violently lifted water decline? It sounds like something similar to Virgil's (Eclogue I, 60 seq.)

Therefore, the gentle deer will feed in the sky, and the naked fish will leave the straits on the shore, before her face glides in our breast. And in another place (Aeneid. I, 611 seqq.)

While the rivers flow in the seas, while the shadows traverse the mountains, while the vaulted sky feeds the stars, your honor, name, and praises shall always remain. Just as, he says, the snow cannot fail from the summits of Lebanon; nor can it be overcome by any amount of sunlight so as to melt entirely; and the flowing streams from the mountains, by no means dry up in the fountains: so my name, which is steadfast of its own accord and everlasting, cannot be changed, and yet when all the other things of nature observe their order, my people have forgotten me. Sequitur enim:

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:15
(Verse 15) Because my people have forgotten me, offering sacrifices in vain and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the world (or eternal) in order to walk through them on an untrodden journey. Whoever forgets God and forsakes him, who says: 'I am the way' (John 14:6); offers sacrifices to foreign gods, stumbles in his own ways, not God's, and forsakes the ancient and eternal paths, which are trodden by the footsteps of all who worship God. But these truly have walked on an untrodden path, and having abandoned the worship of God, they have revered idols, for which the punishment that follows is inflicted.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:16
(Verse 16.) So that their land became a desolation and an eternal hissing, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and shake his head. And because they have forsaken the worship of God and followed the wicked paths of idolatry, therefore their land has been reduced to a wilderness and a wonder of all hissing, so that those who once saw the land and the flourishing city now see it as a desert and a heap of ashes, and they marvel and are astonished, and show the confusion of their souls by the movement of their bodies; for this is to shake the head and demonstrate the astonishment of the mind in silence. That which we understand to be more fully and accurately fulfilled after the coming of the Lord, when no Jew is allowed to enter the land and the holy City by law; but when they come to the earth, they marvel and weep over the prophecies of the Prophets, fulfilled by their deeds.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:17
(Verse 17) Like a burning wind, I will scatter them before the enemy (or enemies); I will show them my back, not my face, on the day of their destruction. Until this day, God's judgment remains on the Jews. They were scattered before the enemy devil or enemy demons throughout the entire world; and as they invoke the name of God in the synagogues of Satan day and night, God shows them his back, not his face, so that they may understand that he is constantly withdrawing and never coming to them. But this is the time of the destruction of the Jews, from the passion of the Savior until the end of the age: so that after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel may be saved (Rom. 11).

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:18
This expresses the thought both of the Jews at that time against Jeremiah, or the Lord our Savior, and of the heretics today against the Lord’s servants. They seek to spread slander and to precede holy people with an accusation, nor do they think about the truthfulness of what they say but only of the lies that they disseminate. For they boast that the law and the counsel and the speech of God remain in their priests and wise people and false prophets, even though Scripture says, “Wisdom will not enter a deceptive soul.”

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:18
(Verse 18) And they said: Come, let us devise schemes against Jeremiah, for the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to all his words. These are the thoughts of the Jews against Jeremiah, or the Lord Savior, then and today, of the heretics against his servants, to construct calumnies and preempt the holy men with accusations, not considering what they speak of truth, but what they fabricate in lies. For they boast in their priests, and in their wise men, and in their false prophets, that the law and counsel of God, and the word, will remain, as the Scripture says: Wisdom will not enter a malicious soul.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:19-21
(Verse 19 and following) Attend, O Lord, to me: and hear the voice of my adversaries. Is evil repaid for good, because they have dug a pit for my soul? Remember that I stood in your presence, to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them. Therefore, let their children become a byword, and let them be led into the hands of the sword. May their wives be without children and widows, and may their husbands be killed by death, may their young men be pierced by the sword in battle, may the cry be heard from their houses. Indeed, these things were suffered by the people of Judah under the type of the Savior, which were subsequently fulfilled more fully and perfectly in Christ. And after the coming of the Babylonians, they were devastated. But they were completely fulfilled in Christ, and after the city was destroyed by the Roman sword, they were put to death, not because of idolatry, which was not present at that time, but because of the killing of the Son of God, when the whole people cried out together: Take him away, take him away; we have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). And their curse is a complete eternal damnation; His blood is upon us, and upon our children (Matthew 27:25). For they dug a pit for Christ, and said: Let us remove him from the land of the living (Isaiah 53:8). He showed them such great mercy, that while standing in the presence of the Father, he spoke good things for them, to turn away his anger from them, even saying on the cross: Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34). We hasten through the obscure, in order to dwell in the clearer things, by no means interpreting the delusions of certain individuals or the captivity of the celestial Jerusalem, but rather pursuing a clear history and a most evident prophecy, with every confidence in words and meanings.

[AD 420] Jerome on Jeremiah 18:22-23
(Vers. 22, 23.) For he brings upon them suddenly a robber, because they dug a pit to capture me, and hid snares for my feet. But you, Lord, know all their counsel against me to bring about my death. Do not forgive their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight. Let them be overthrown (or let them stumble) before you; in the time of your anger, deal with them (or do to them). If we understand this from Jeremiah, let us refer the sudden robber to Nebuchadnezzar; if we understand it from the Savior, which is both truer and better, let us refer it to the Roman army. And so that the sentence of God may not seem unjust, he explains what they did against the Son of God, Christ, and what they suffered. But what he concludes, that you may not show favor to their wickedness, and their sin may not be blotted out from your presence, is by no means contrary to the previous sentence, in which he intercedes for the people to the Father; but after the time for repentance has passed, and they persist in their wickedness, the people and the elders are punished not so much for themselves as for others, so that their unavenged sin may not harm others by example. And what he brings forward: That those who stumble, or fall, in your sight, are similar to that of Isaiah and the Apostle Peter. And you will not stumble like on a stone of offense, and a rock of scandal (Isaiah VIII, 14; I Peter II, 8). The Prophet also mentions this in the Psalms: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This has been done by the Lord (Psalm CXVII, 22).