Bible Strands
Jeremiah 25:34
Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The text addresses the shepherds and leaders of Israel's flock, pronouncing immediate judgment following a description of unburied slaughter spread across the earth.
The words — The passage commands הֵילִ֨ילוּ (hei.Li.lu), "wail," and וְ/הִֽתְפַּלְּשׁוּ֙ (ve./hit.pa.le.Shu), "and roll in ashes," to urge the leaders to mourn their impending destruction.
The thread — This imagery of shattered authority and unburied death connects to the widespread slaughter in Jeremiah 25:33, the call to sackcloth and ashes in Jeremiah 6:26, and the divine promise to shatter nations like pottery in Psalms 2:9.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment that human leadership will not evade divine judgment, requiring readers to accept that political power is fragile before God's sovereign decree.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 6:26 O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- 2 Chronicles 36:10 In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.
- Psalms 2:9 You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”
- Isaiah 2:16 against every ship of Tarshish, and against every stately vessel.
- Isaiah 10:12 So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes.
- Isaiah 30:14 It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”
- Isaiah 33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.
- Isaiah 34:6 The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
- Jeremiah 3:19 Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me.
- Jeremiah 4:8 So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”