Jeremiah 19

1 Thus saith the Lord: Go, and take a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests:

Then said the Lord to me, Go and get an earthen bottle, the work of the potter, and you shall bring [some] of the elders of the people, and of the priests;

2 And go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the entry of the earthen gate: and there thou shalt proclaim the words that I shall tell thee.

and you shall go forth to the burial-place of the sons of their children, which is at the entrance of the gate of Charsith; and do you read there all these words which I shall speak to you:

3 And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O ye kings of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring an affliction upon this place: so that whoever shall hear it, his ears shall tingle:

and you shall say to them, Hear you the word of the Lord, you kings of Juda, and men of Juda, and the dwellers in Jerusalem, and they that enter in by these gates; thus says the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I [will] bring evil upon this place, so that the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle.

4 Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place: and have sacrificed therein to strange gods, whom neither they nor their fathers knew, nor the kings of Juda: and they have filled this place with the blood of innocents.

Because they forsook me, and profaned this place, and burnt incense in it to strange gods, which they and their fathers knew not; and the kings of Juda have filled this place with innocent blood,

5 And they have built the high places of Baalim, to burn their children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim: which I did not command, nor speak of, neither did it once come into my mind.

and built high places for Baal, to burn their children in the fire, which things I commanded not, neither did I design [them] in my heart:

6 Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom, but the valley of slaughter.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called, The fall and burial-place of the son of Ennom, but, The burial-place of slaughter.

7 And I will defeat the counsel of Juda and of Jerusalem in this place: and I will destroy them with the sword in the sight of their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give their carcasses to be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth.

And I will destroy the counsel of Juda and the counsel of Jerusalem in this place; and I will cast them down with the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the sky and to the wild beasts of the earth.

8 And I will make this city an astonishent, and a hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

And I will bring this city to desolation and [make it] a hissing; every one that passes by it shall scowl, and hiss because of all her plague.

9 And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives shall straiten them.

And they shall eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his neighbour in the blockade, and in the siege wherewith their enemies shall besiege them.

10 And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that shall go with thee.

And you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men that go forth with you,

11 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: even so will I break this people, and this city, as the potter’s vessel is broken, which cannot be made whole again: and they shall be buried in Topheth, because there is no other place to bury in.

and you shall say, Thus says the Lord, Thus will I break in pieces this people, and this city, even as an earthen vessel is broken in pieces which can’t be mended again.

12 Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof: and I will make this city as Topheth.

Thus will I do, says the Lord, to this place, and to the inhabitants of it, that this city may be given up, as one that is falling to ruin.

13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of Juda shall be unclean as the place of Topheth: all the houses upon whose roots they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to strange gods.

And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Juda shall be as a ruinous place, because of their uncleannesses in all the houses, wherein they burnt incense upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and poured drink-offerings to strange gods.

14 Then Jeremias came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent him to prophecy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and said to all people:

And Jeremias came from [the place] of the Fall, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house: and said to all the people, Thus says the Lord;

15 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring in upon this city, and upon all the cities thereof all the evils that I have spoken against it: because they have hardened their necks, and they might not hear my words.

Behold I bring upon this city, and upon all the cities belonging to it, and upon the villages of it, all the evils which I have spoken against it, because they have hardened their neck, [that they might not] listen to my commands.