Jeremiah 25:36
A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath spoiled their pasture. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath spoiled their pasture.
The verse is part of a clearly pronounced sentence of doom whose awful import the multitudes could scarcely understand. It means that swift-coming judgments would spoil the pasture of the shepherds and the principal of the flock, so that their cry and howling would be heard. Its meaning was illustrated by the cup filled with the wine of divine wrath to be drained first by Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and their kings, and then by Pharaoh king of Egypt with his servants and princes and people and many other nations until His purpose was fulfilled. It was further illustrated by the dashing to pieces of a potter's earthen bottle to show that He would break this people and this city as a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again, because they hardened their necks and would not hear His words. The verse belongs to the prophecy from which Daniel learned that the seventy years of captivity were nearing their end.