Jeremiah 25:34
New International Version
Weep and wail, you shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For your time to be slaughtered has come; you will fall like the best of the rams.

New Living Translation
Weep and moan, you evil shepherds! Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock! The time of your slaughter has arrived; you will fall and shatter like a fragile vase.

English Standard Version
“Wail, you shepherds, and cry out, and roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come, and you shall fall like a choice vessel.

Berean Standard Bible
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.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
“Wail, shepherds, and cry! Roll about in the ashes, You leaders of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled; You shall fall like a precious vessel.

New American Standard Bible
“Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; Wallow in the dust, you masters of the flock; For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions have come, And you will fall like a precious vessel.

NASB 1995
“Wail, you shepherds, and cry; And wallow in ashes, you masters of the flock; For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions have come, And you will fall like a choice vessel.

NASB 1977
“Wail, you shepherds, and cry; And wallow in ashes, you masters of the flock; For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions have come, And you shall fall like a choice vessel.

Legacy Standard Bible
Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; And roll yourselves in ashes, you masters of the flock; For the days of your slaughter and your scatterings are being fulfilled, And you will fall like a desirable vessel.

Amplified Bible
“Wail, you shepherds, and cry; And roll in ashes, you masters of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have come in full, And you will fall and be broken into pieces like a choice vessel.

Christian Standard Bible
Wail, you shepherds, and cry out. Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. Because the days of your slaughter have come, you will fall and become shattered like a precious vase.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Wail, you shepherds, and cry out. Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. Because the days of your slaughter have come, you will fall and become shattered like a precious vase.

American Standard Version
Wail, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow in ashes, ye principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and ye shall fall like a goodly vessel.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Wail shepherds, and cry out and wallow in the dust, strong ones of the sheep, because your days for slaughter are fulfilled, and you shall be broken, and you shall fall like desirable vessels

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and lament, ye rams of the flock: for your days have been completed for slaughter, and ye shall fall as the choice rams.

Contemporary English Version
The LORD's people are his flock, and you leaders were the shepherds. But now it's your turn to be butchered like sheep. You'll shatter like fine pottery dropped on the floor. So roll on the ground, crying and mourning.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Howl, ye shepherds, and cry: and sprinkle yourselves with ashes, ye leaders of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and your dispersion are accomplished, and you shall fall like precious vessels.

English Revised Version
Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter are fully come, and I will break you in pieces, and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Mourn, you shepherds, and cry. Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. The time has come for you to be slaughtered. The time has come for you to be scattered, and you will break like fine pottery.

Good News Translation
Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered, and you will be butchered like rams.

International Standard Version
"Scream, you shepherds! Cry out! Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock! Indeed, the time for your slaughter and your dispersion has arrived, and you will break like a choice vessel.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Wail, ye shepherds, and cry; And wallow yourselves in the dust, ye leaders of the flock; For the days of your slaughter are fully come, And I will break you in pieces, And ye shall fall like a precious vessel.

Literal Standard Version
Howl, you shepherds, and cry, | And roll yourselves, you majestic of the flock, | For your days have been full | For slaughtering, and [for] your scatterings, | And you have fallen as a desirable vessel.

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
Howl, you shepherds, and wail! roll on the ground, leaders of the flock! The time for your slaughter has come; like choice rams you shall fall.

NET Bible
Wail and cry out in anguish, you rulers! Roll in the dust, you who shepherd flocks of people! The time for you to be slaughtered has come. You will lie scattered and fallen like broken pieces of fine pottery.

New Revised Standard Version
Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in ashes, you lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter have come—and your dispersions, and you shall fall like a choice vessel.

New Heart English Bible
Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow in dust, you principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and you shall fall like a goodly vessel.

Webster's Bible Translation
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.

World English Bible
Wail, you shepherds, and cry. Wallow in dust, you leader of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have fully come, and you will fall like fine pottery.

Young's Literal Translation
Howl, ye shepherds, and cry, And roll yourselves, ye honourable of the flock, For full have been your days, For slaughtering, and for your scatterings, And ye have fallen as a desirable vessel.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Cry of the Shepherds
34Wail, 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. 35Flight will evade the shepherds, and escape will elude the leaders of the flock.…

Cross References
James 5:5
You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter.

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.

Isaiah 34:7
And the wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong ones. Their land will be drenched with blood, and their soil will be soaked with fat.

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.

Jeremiah 18:22
Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

Jeremiah 48:38
On all the rooftops of Moab and in the public squares, everyone is mourning; for I have shattered Moab like an unwanted jar," declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 50:27
Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come--the time of their punishment.


Treasury of Scripture

Howl, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, you principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and you shall fall like a pleasant vessel.

Howl.

Jeremiah 25:23,36
Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, …

Jeremiah 4:8,9
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us…

Ezekiel 34:16
I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

ye shepherds.

Jeremiah 6:26
O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

Jeremiah 48:26
Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

Ezekiel 27:30,31
And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: …

ye principal.

Ezekiel 34:17,20
And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats…

the days of your.

Jeremiah 25:12
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Jeremiah 27:7
And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

Jeremiah 51:20-26
Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; …

ye shall.

Jeremiah 19:10-12
Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, …

Jeremiah 22:28
Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

Psalm 2:9
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

pleasant vessel.

Jeremiah 3:19
But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

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Accomplished Ashes Break Chiefs Choice Cries Cry Destruction Directions Dispersion Dust Fall Flock Fully Goodly Grief Help Howl Keepers Leaders Males Pieces Pleasant Precious Principal Rams Roll Shattered Sheep Shepherds Slaughter Slaughtered Time Vessel Wail Wallow Weep Yourselves
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Accomplished Ashes Break Chiefs Choice Cries Cry Destruction Directions Dispersion Dust Fall Flock Fully Goodly Grief Help Howl Keepers Leaders Males Pieces Pleasant Precious Principal Rams Roll Shattered Sheep Shepherds Slaughter Slaughtered Time Vessel Wail Wallow Weep Yourselves
Jeremiah 25
1. Jeremiah, reproving the Jews' disobedience to the prophets,
8. foretells the seventy years' captivity;
12. and after that, the destruction of Babylon.
15. Under the type of a cup of wine he foreshows the destruction of all nations.
34. The howling of the shepherds.














(34) Howl, ye shepherds.--The idea of the flock suggested in the "habitation" or "pasture" of Jeremiah 25:30 is here expanded. The "shepherds" are, as usual, the rulers of the people (Jeremiah 10:21; Jeremiah 22:22, et al.).

Wallow yourselves in the ashes.--The words in italics have probably been added to bring the passage into conformity with Jeremiah 6:26, but they are not needed, and the interpretation is unauthorised. Better, therefore, roll on the ground. By some interpreters the word is rendered "sprinkle yourselves." The "principal of the flock" are the "strong ones," i.e., the best and fattest of the rams, denoting figuratively the princes and captains of the people.

And of your dispersions.--The Hebrew text seems faulty, and a slight alteration, now generally accepted, gives, and I will scatter you.

Like a pleasant vessel.--The sudden change of metaphor is somewhat startling, as judged by our rules of rhetoric; but the poets and prophets of Israel wrote without the fear of criticism, and used each image that presented itself, if it was fit for its immediate purpose, without caring much for continuity. The thought of the scattered flock suggested the idea of a dispersion or breaking-up of another kind, even that of the "pleasant vessel" (literally, the vessel of desire, i.e., a vase made as for kingly and honourable uses), falling with a crash and shivered into fragments, which Jeremiah had presented to the people in his acted parable and spoken words in Jeremiah 19:10-11, and in Jeremiah 22:28. The LXX. translators give like the chosen rams, as if anxious to avoid the mixed metaphor, and venturing on a conjectural emendation of the text. . . .

Verse 34. - Wallow yourselves in the ashes. Supply rather, in the dust (comp. Micah 1:10), as more suitable to the figure (see on Jeremiah 6:26). The shepherds, and the principal (or, noble ones) of the flock, are, of course, merely different forms of expression for the rulers. The days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; rather, your days for being slaughtered are fulfilled; and I will scatter you (or, dash you in pieces). This is the reading of an old and valuable manuscript at St. Petersburg, and is partly favored by the pointing; it is adopted by most modern critics, the form in the text being ungrammatical. Pleasant; or, precious (comp. Daniel 11:8, Authorized Version). Compare the figure in Jeremiah 22:28.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Wail,
הֵילִ֨ילוּ (hê·lî·lū)
Verb - Hifil - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 3213: To howl, make a howling

you shepherds,
הָרֹעִ֜ים (hā·rō·‘îm)
Article | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 7462: To tend a, flock, pasture it, in, to graze, to rule, to associate with

and cry out;
וְזַעֲק֗וּ (wə·za·‘ă·qū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 2199: To shriek, to announce, convene publicly

roll in the dust,
וְהִֽתְפַּלְּשׁוּ֙ (wə·hiṯ·pal·lə·šū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hitpael - Imperative - masculine plural
Strong's 6428: (act of mourning) perhaps to roll in

you leaders
אַדִּירֵ֣י (’ad·dî·rê)
Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 117: Wide, large, powerful

of the flock.
הַצֹּ֔אן (haṣ·ṣōn)
Article | Noun - common singular
Strong's 6629: Small cattle, sheep and goats, flock

For
כִּֽי־ (kî-)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

the days
יְמֵיכֶ֖ם (yə·mê·ḵem)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 3117: A day

of your slaughter
לִטְב֑וֹחַ (liṭ·ḇō·w·aḥ)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 2873: To slaughter, butcher, slay

have come;
מָלְא֥וּ (mā·lə·’ū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 4390: To fill, be full of

you will fall
וּנְפַלְתֶּ֖ם (ū·nə·p̄al·tem)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 5307: To fall, lie

and be shattered
וּתְפוֹצ֣וֹתִיכֶ֔ם (ū·ṯə·p̄ō·w·ṣō·w·ṯî·ḵem)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | second person masculine plural
Strong's 8600: Dispersion -- a dispersal

like fine
חֶמְדָּֽה׃ (ḥem·dāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 2532: Desire, delight

pottery.
כִּכְלִ֥י (kiḵ·lî)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3627: Something prepared, any apparatus


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 25:34 Wail you shepherds and cry (Jer.)
Jeremiah 25:33
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