After the Judeans flee to Egypt against God's wishes, the Lord instructs Jeremiah to leave them a sign that their search for security will be fruitless.
The Jews are attempting to escape Nebuchadnezzar's wrath, but the Lord has already told them that there is no sanctuary in Egypt. Now, God backs up His words with a physical enactment by His prophet. He tells Jeremiah, "Take some large stones in your hands, and bury them in the clay pavement that is at the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes. Let the Judeans see you do it..." (vs. 9)
Why? The buried stones represent a prophecy of coming judgment. "Say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to send and take my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will set his throne above these stones that I have buried, and he will spread his royal canopy over them" (vs. 10). Jeremiah marks the spot with these stones where the one that the Jews have been fleeing will come and set up his throne.
It will not be pretty for any of the survivors when Nebuchadnezzar arrives. "He shall come and ravage the land of Egypt, giving those who are destined for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are destined for captivity, to captivity, and those who are destined for the sword, to the sword" (vs. 11). The nation of Egypt itself, along with her gods, is coming in for judgment by God, through His servant Nebuchadnezzar. The Jews who have escaped from Judah have merely traded one kind of disaster (in the loss of the homeland) for another (in the invasion of their new adopted country.)
They should have listened to the Lord.
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