“And you, son of man, take a brick ¹  and set it in front of you. Inscribe ²  a city on it – Jerusalem.

Only his flesh has pain for himself, ¹  and he mourns for himself.” ² 

For he knows what we are made of; ¹  he realizes ²  we are made of clay. ³ 

The priest will then take holy water ¹  in a pottery jar, and take some ²  of the dust ³  that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water.

‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  says, “Take these documents, both the sealed copy of the deed of purchase and the unsealed copy. Put them in a clay jar so that they may be preserved for a long time to come.”’ ² 

They worshiped ¹  the disgusting idols ²  in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. ³ 

You will break them ¹  with an iron scepter; ²  you will smash them like a potter’s jar!’” ³ 

I grind them as fine windblown dust; ¹  I beat them underfoot ²  like clay ³  in the streets.

Like a coating of glaze ¹  over earthenware are fervent ²  lips with an evil heart. ³ 

“Go down at once ¹  to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” ² 

They are then to take other stones and replace those stones, ¹  and he is to take other plaster and replaster the house.

I grind them as fine as the dust of the ground; I crush them and stomp on them like clay ¹  in the streets.

The Lord’s words are absolutely reliable. ¹  They are as untainted as silver purified in a furnace on the ground, where it is thoroughly refined. ² 

along with the plants by the mouth of the river. ¹  All the cultivated land near the river will turn to dust and be blown away. ² 

Anything their carcass may fall on will become unclean. An oven or small stove must be smashed to pieces; they are unclean, and they will stay unclean ¹  to you.

He divided the three hundred men into three units. ¹  He gave them all trumpets and empty jars with torches inside them. ² 

It shatters in pieces like a clay jar, so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ¹  Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ²  to scoop a hot coal from a fire ³  or to skim off water from a cistern.” ⁴ 

I will make streams flow down the slopes and produce springs in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water and the arid land into springs.

This man, Jeconiah, will be like a broken pot someone threw away. He will be like a clay vessel ¹  that no one wants. ²  Why will he and his children be forced into exile? Why will they be thrown out into a country they know nothing about? ³ 

“But all these nations will someday taunt him ¹  and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ²  ‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ³  (How long will this go on?) ⁴  – he who gets rich by extortion!’ ⁵