You will be smashed like a clay pot, broken into such tiny pieces that there won't be a big enough piece to pick up coals from a hearth or a little bit of water from a well.
Who is this man Jehoiachin? A broken pot that's been thrown away, something nobody wants? Why have he and his children been thrown out, exiled in an unfamiliar country?
Cry out and weep, you shepherds! Roll around on the ground mourning, you leaders of the flock. The time for you to be killed has come; you will fall, smashed like the finest pottery.
The Israelites are a flock that's been chased and scattered by lions. The first on the attack was the king of Assyria; then lastly Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon crushed their bones.
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon chewed me up and sucked me dry, making me as empty as a jar with nothing in it. He swallowed me down as if he were some monster, filling himself with the tastiest parts of me and throwing the rest away.
All your enemies open their mouths at you, hissing and gnashing their teeth, “We've swallowed her up! This is the day we've been waiting for. Now it's here and we've seen it happen!”
The Lord has destroyed without mercy all the places where the descendants of Jacob lived. In his anger he has torn down the fortresses of the Daughter of Judah. He has demolished and degraded the kingdom and its leaders.
The Lord has become like an enemy, completely destroying Israel and its palaces, demolishing its fortresses, making the Daughter of Judah cry and mourn more and more.
so you must prophesy and announce that this is what the Lord God says: They have turned you into a wasteland, attacking you from every direction, so that you became the property of other nations and people gossiped about you and slandered you.
The Lord will have your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will scatter seven different ways. Everyone on earth will be horrified at what happens to you.
The Lord will scatter you among the nations all over the earth, and there you will worship other gods, gods made of wood and stone, which you and your fathers had never heard of.