- God tells Jeremiah to take an earthenware jug, gather some elders and priests, and head out to the Potsherd Gate in the valley of Topheth (where child sacrifice was done).
- Then Jeremiah will tell them that God's bringing vengeance against Judah for worshipping other gods like Baal, and sacrificing their children in fire.
- The valley won't be known as Topheth anymore but as the Valley of Slaughter. Tons of people from Judah will die there in retribution.
- People will hiss at the city as they go by, since it will be such a place of horror.
- God will make people starve so badly during the siege that they'll eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and neighbors.
- Then Jeremiah's supposed to symbolically break the earthenware jug, and say that this is the same way God will break the people of Jerusalem, like a potter destroying a badly made jar.
- Jerusalem will be just as horrible and full of death as Topheth.
- Jeremiah does everything God told him to do. When he returns from Topheth, he tells the people that God's about to rain down pain on them for their disobedience.