Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter’s jar, So ruthlessly shattered That a shard will not be found among its pieces To take fire from a hearth Or to scoop water from a cistern.”
Parallel translations
- WEB He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken piece a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
- KJV And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
- BSB 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.”
- NKJV And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel, Which is broken in pieces; He shall not spare. So there shall not be found among its fragments A shard to take fire from the hearth, Or to take water from the cistern.”
- NLT You will be smashed like a piece of pottery— shattered so completely that there won’t be a piece big enough to carry coals from a fireplace or a little water from the well.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The collapse will be like shattered pottery, broken so completely that no useful fragment remains. It matters because the judgment is thorough and irreparable.
Overview
Continuing the image, God shows their ruin as a clay vessel smashed beyond use, with not even a shard left to carry coals or scoop water. The destruction is total. This sober picture of judgment on the impenitent magnifies the mercy offered to those who, instead of trusting corruption, return and rest in the LORD.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 21
- Ps 2:9You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
- Jer 19:10–11“Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you,
- Rev 2:27He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father:
- 2 Pet 2:4–5For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
- Rom 11:21for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
- Ezek 24:14I, Yahweh, have spoken it: it shall happen, and I will do it: I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways, and according to your doings, shall they judge you, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Rom 8:32He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
- Isa 27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- Ezek 9:10As for me also, my eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.”
- Ezek 15:3–8Will wood be taken of it to make anything? Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel on it?
- Jer 48:38On all the housetops of Moab, and in its streets, there is lamentation everywhere; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which no one delights,” says Yahweh.
- Job 27:22For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.
- Ps 31:12I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.
- Ezek 5:11Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord Yahweh, ‘surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you. My eye won’t spare, and I will have no pity.
- Ezek 7:9My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. I will bring on you according to your ways. Your abominations will be among you; and you will know that I, Yahweh, strike.
- Ezek 8:18Therefore will I also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”
- Luke 4:2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.
- Isa 47:14Behold, they are like stubble. The fire will burn them. They won’t deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It won’t be a coal to warm at or a fire to sit by.
- Deut 29:20Yahweh will not pardon him, but then Yahweh’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.
- Jer 13:14I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says Yahweh: “I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.”’”
- Ezek 7:4My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations will be among you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.’
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 30:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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