Cry, you leaders! Cry out loud! Roll around in the dust, leaders of the people! It is now time for you to be killed. You will fall and be scattered, like pieces of a broken jar.
In the spring King Nebuchadnezzar sent for Jehoiachin and brought him and some valuable treasures from the Temple of the Lord to Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin’s uncle Zedekiah the king of Judah and Jerusalem.
When the Lord finishes doing what he planned to Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will punish Assyria. The king of Assyria is very proud, and his pride has made him do these evil things, so God will punish him.
You will be like a clay jar that breaks, smashed into many pieces. Those pieces will be too small to take coals from the fire or to get water from a well.”
How terrible it will be for you who destroy others but have not been destroyed yet. How terrible it will be for you, traitor, whom no one has turned against yet. When you stop destroying, others will destroy you. When you stop turning against others, they will turn against you.
The Lord’s sword will be covered with blood; it will be covered with fat, with the blood from lambs and goats, with the fat from the kidneys of sheep. This is because the Lord decided there will be a sacrifice in Bozrah and much killing in Edom.
Let them cry out in their houses when you bring an enemy against them suddenly. Let all this happen, because my enemies have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden traps for my feet.
Jehoiachin is like a broken pot someone threw away; he is like something no one wants. Why will Jehoiachin and his children be thrown out and sent into a foreign land?
“But when the seventy years have passed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his entire nation for their evil,” says the Lord. “I will make that land a desert forever.
All nations will serve Nebuchadnezzar and his son and grandson. Then the time will come for Babylon to be defeated, and many nations and great kings will make Babylon their servant.
“I, the Lord, said, ‘How happy I would be to treat you as my own children and give you a pleasant land, a land more beautiful than that of any other nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘My Father’ and not turn away from me.
“The people of Moab thought they were greater than the Lord, so punish them until they act as if they are drunk. Moab will fall and roll around in its own vomit, and people will even make fun of it.
People are crying on every roof in Moab and in every public square. There is nothing but sadness, because I have broken Moab like a jar no one wants,” says the Lord.
Kill all the young men in Babylon; let them be killed like animals. How terrible it will be for them, because the time has come for their defeat; it is time for them to be punished.
My people, put on rough cloth and roll in the ashes to show how sad you are. Cry loudly for those who are dead, as if your only son were dead, because the destroyer will soon come against us.
He will take their gods, their metal idols, and their valuable things made of silver and gold back to Egypt. Then he will not bother the king of the North for a few years.
You walk on poor people, forcing them to give you grain. You have built fancy houses of cut stone, but you will not live in them. You have planted beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink the wine from them.
The Lord says, “I am angry at my shepherds, and I will punish the leaders. I, the Lord All-Powerful, care for my flock, the people of Judah. I will make them like my proud war horses.
Listen to the shepherds crying because their rich pastures are destroyed. Listen to the lions roaring because the lovely land of the Jordan River is ruined.
Your life on earth was full of rich living and pleasing yourselves with everything you wanted. You made yourselves fat, like an animal ready to be killed.