and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel which is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a sherd is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
Lamentations 4:2 - Revised Standard Version (RSV-CI) The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are reckoned as earthen pots, the work of a potter's hands! More versionsKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 The precious sons of Zion, Comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, The work of the hands of the potter! Amplified Bible - Classic Edition The noble and precious sons of Zion, [once] worth their weight in fine gold–how they are esteemed [merely] as earthen pots or pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! [Isa. 30:14; Jer. 19:11; II Cor. 4:7.] American Standard Version (1901) The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Common English Bible Zion’s precious children, once valued as pure gold— oh no!—now they are worth no more than clay pots made by a potter. Catholic Public Domain Version BETH. The famous sons of Zion, and those clothed with the foremost gold: how they have become like earthen vessels, the work of the hands of a potter. Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version Beth. The noble sons of Sion and they that were clothed with the best gold: how are they esteemed as earthen vessels, the work of the potter's hands? |
and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel which is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a sherd is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up.
Thus said the Lord, “Go, buy a potter's earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests,
and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury.
Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land which they do not know?
In the dust of the streets lie the young and the old; my maidens and my young men have fallen by the sword; in the day of thy anger thou hast slain them, slaughtering without mercy.
Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel.
For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will brandish your sons, O Zion, over your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's sword.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, and some for noble use, some for ignoble.