The potter was an important craftsman in the society of that time as all domestic utensils such as pots, plates and cups were made from clay. Jeremiah visited the house of the potter and saw a sign of God's dealings with his people in the work which the potter was doing. As he moulded the wet clay, he watched to see if it would become a perfect piece of pottery, and if he saw that it would turn out to be imperfect he remoulded it and shaped it into something different. Jeremiah thought of his people as being like clay in the hands of God. If the people of Judah will allow God to shape them as he wills they will become his perfect people, but if they resist his plans for them they will have to be reshaped through hard experiences until they are ready for the divine purpose.

After this, Jeremiah bought a clay jar and went to perform a prophetic action, accompanied by some of the elders and the older priests of Jerusalem. They all went out to a place where all the rubbish of the city was thrown. This place, called Topheth, had been a notorious place of pagan worship in the time of King Manasseh and was deliberately desecrated by King Josiah during his reform programme (2 Kings 23: 10). Jeremiah smashed the clay jar in this place to signify that God would smash Jerusalem in the same way. The city that had been called holy would become as unclean and desecrated as Topheth. Jeremiah then went to the court of the Temple and reiterated his message of judgement.