The election of the covenant people was reversed to rejection. Previously they were seen as gold and precious gems, but this had changed. Their glory is gone and replaced by contempt and humiliation, just as gold that has lost its brilliancy, and like precious stones that have lost their shine. The inhabitants of Judah regarded themselves to be as valuable as pure gold, but now they are considered as worthless as earthen pots (see also Isaiah 44:2; Isaiah 54:5;Isaiah 64:8).1
2 The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots, the work of a potter’s hands!