Is this man Coniah a despised shattered jar, or a vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they do not know?
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has devoured us. He has crushed us. He has set us up as an empty vessel. He has swallowed us like a jackal. He has filled his belly with delicacies. He has cast me out.
But if God, desiring to display wrath, and to make His power known, endured in much long-suffering vessels of wrath having been fitted out for destruction,
So prophesy and say, So says the Lord Jehovah: Because, even because of the wasting and crushing of you from round about, that you might become a possession to the rest of the nations, and you are made to go up on the tip of the tongue and the whispering of the people.
All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; they hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed up. Surely this is the day for which we waited; we have found; we have seen.
The Lord was like an enemy; He swallowed up Israel; He swallowed up all his fortresses and destroyed his strongholds; and He increased mourning and weeping in the daughter of Judah.
The Lord swallowed up all of Jacob’s dwelling-places, and did not pity. In His wrath He has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He made them touch to the earth. He has defiled the kingdom and its rulers.
Israel is a scattered sheep, driven away by lions. First, the king of Assyria devoured him. And last, this King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon broke his bones.
And its breaking is as the breaking of a potter’s vessel; when shattered he has no pity; for in its breaking there is not found a shard to take up fire from the hearth, nor to skim water from a pool.
And Jehovah shall scatter you among all people, from one end of the earth even to the other, and you shall serve other gods there, wood and stone, which you have not known, and not your fathers.
Jehovah shall cause you to be stricken before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
And I will scatter you among nations, and shall draw out the sword after you, and your land shall become a waste, and your cities shall be a desolation.
Howl, shepherds, and cry, and roll yourselves in ashes, O leaders of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fulfilled, and you shall fall like a desirable vessel.