They say, ¹  ‘The time is not near to build houses; ²  the city ³  is a cooking pot ⁴  and we are the meat in it.’

Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘The corpses you have dumped ¹  in the midst of the city ²  are the meat, and this city ³  is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it. ⁴ 

This city will not be a cooking pot for you, and you will not ¹  be meat within it; I will judge you at the border of Israel.

Recite a proverb to this rebellious house ¹  and say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: “‘Set on the pot, ²  set it on, pour water in it too;

“‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to the city of bloodshed, the pot whose rot ¹  is in it, whose rot has not been removed ²  from it! Empty it piece by piece. No lot has fallen on it. ³