1The LORD said to Jeremiah, ‘Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people. Also tell some of the priests to go with you.2Go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Stand near the entrance of the gate where broken pieces of pottery are thrown away. There announce the message I give you.3Tell the people, “Listen to the LORD’s message, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. The LORD who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, ‘Listen! I am going to bring trouble on Jerusalem. It will be so horrible that it will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring.4My people have deserted me. They have made this city a place where other gods are worshipped. They have burned incense to them here. They, their people of long ago and the kings of Judah had never known these gods. My people have also filled this place with the blood of those who aren’t guilty.5They have built the high places where they worship Baal. There they sacrifice their children in the fire as offerings to Baal. That is something I did not command or talk about. It did not even enter my mind.6So watch out!’ announces the LORD. ‘The days are coming when people will not call this place Topheth anymore. And they will not call it the Valley of Ben Hinnom either. Instead, they will call it the Valley of Death.7‘ “ ‘In this place I will make the plans of Judah and Jerusalem as useless as a broken jar. I will use their enemies to kill my people by swords. They will die at the hands of those who want to take their lives. I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds and the wild animals.8I will completely destroy this city. I will make it a horrible thing. People will make fun of it. All those who pass by it will be shocked. They will laugh at its people because of all their wounds.9I will make the people of this city eat their sons and daughters. And they will eat one another. They will do this because things will be so bad during the attack. The enemies who want to take their lives will bring all this trouble on them.’ ”10‘Jeremiah, break the jar while those who go with you are watching.11Tell them, “Here is what the LORD who rules over all says. ‘This potter’s jar is smashed and can’t be repaired. And I will smash this nation and this city. People will bury their dead in Topheth. But they will run out of room.12Here is what I will do to Jerusalem and those who live here,’ ” announces the LORD. “ ‘I will make this city like Topheth.13The houses in Jerusalem will be made “unclean” like Topheth. So will the houses of the kings of Judah. All these people burned incense on their roofs to all the stars. They poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ” ’14Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth. That’s where the LORD had sent him to prophesy. Jeremiah stood in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple. He spoke to all the people. He said,15‘The LORD who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, “Listen! I am going to punish this city and all the villages around it. I am going to bring against them all the trouble I have announced. That’s because my people were stubborn. They would not listen to what I said.” ’
Jeremiah 19
English Standard Version
The Broken Flask
1Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy a potter’s earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, (2Ki 19:2; 2Ki 23:1; Jer 18:2; Jer 19:10; Eze 8:1)2and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. (Jos 15:8)3You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. (1Sa 3:11; 2Ki 21:12; Jer 13:13; Jer 17:20)4Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, (2Ki 21:16; Jer 1:16; Jer 2:34)5and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— (Le 18:21; De 17:3; Jer 7:31; Jer 32:35)6therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. (Jer 7:32; Jer 19:2)7And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. (Le 26:17; Isa 19:3; Jer 7:33)8And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. (Jer 18:16)9And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’ (Le 26:29; De 28:53; De 28:55; De 28:57; Isa 9:20; La 2:20; La 4:10; Eze 5:10)10“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, (Jer 19:1; Jer 51:63)11and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. (Ps 2:9; Pr 6:15; Isa 30:14; Jer 7:32; La 4:2)12Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. (2Ki 23:10)13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’” (De 4:19; 2Sa 11:2; 2Ki 23:12; Jer 7:18; Jer 19:12; Jer 32:29; Jer 44:18; Zep 1:5; Ac 7:42)14Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: (2Ch 20:5; Jer 19:2; Jer 26:2)15“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.” (2Ch 30:8; Jer 7:26; Jer 25:3)