CHAPTER 19
This is what
the LORD
says:
“Go,
buy
a clay
jar
from a potter.
Take some of the elders
of the people
and leaders
of the priests,
and go
out to
the valley
of Ben-hinnom
near the entrance
of the Potsherd
Gate.
Proclaim
there
the words
I speak
to you,
saying,
‘Hear
the word
of the LORD,
O kings
of Judah
and residents
of Jerusalem.
This is what
the LORD
of Hosts,
the God
of Israel,
says:
I am going to bring
such disaster
on
this
place
that
the ears
of all
who hear of it
will ring,
because
they have abandoned Me
and made this
a foreign
place.
They have burned incense
in it
to other
gods
that
neither they
nor their fathers
nor the kings
of Judah
have ever
known.
They have filled
this
place
with the blood
of the innocent.
They have built
high places
to Baal
on which to burn
their children
in the fire
as offerings
to Baal—
something
I never
commanded
or mentioned,
nor
did it ever enter
My mind.
So
behold,
the days
are coming,
declares
the LORD,
when this
place
will no
longer
be called
Topheth
or the valley
of Ben-hinnom,
but
the Valley
of Slaughter.
And in this
place
I will ruin
the plans
of Judah
and Jerusalem.
I will make them fall
by the sword
before
their enemies,
by the hands
of those who seek
their lives,
and I will give
their carcasses
as food
to the birds
of the sky
and the beasts
of the earth.
I will make
this
city
a desolation
and an object of scorn.
All
who pass
by
will be horrified,
and will scoff
because of
all
its wounds.
I will make them eat
the flesh
of their sons
and daughters,
and they will eat
one
another’s
flesh
in the siege
and distress
inflicted
on them
by their enemies
who seek
their lives.’
and you are to proclaim
to them
that this is what
the LORD
of Hosts
says:
I will shatter
this
nation
and this
city,
like
one shatters
a potter’s
jar
that
can
never
again
be repaired.
They will bury
the dead in Topheth
since there is nowhere
else
to bury them.
This is what
I will do
to this
place
and to its residents,
declares
the LORD.
I will make
this
city
like Topheth.
The houses
of Jerusalem
and the houses
of the kings
of Judah
will be
defiled
like that place,
Topheth—
all
the houses
on
whose rooftops
they burned incense
to all the
heavenly
hosts
and poured out
drink offerings
to other
gods."
Then Jeremiah
returned
from Topheth,
where
the LORD
had sent
him to prophesy,
and he stood
in the court
of the LORD’s
house
and proclaimed
to
all
the people,
“Thus
says
the LORD
of Hosts,
the God
of Israel:
‘I am about to bring
on
this
city
and on
all
the villages around it
every
disaster
I have pronounced
against them,
because
they have stiffened
their necks
so as not
to heed
My words.'"