Jeremiah 19
1 This is another message that Yahweh gave [to me]: “Go and buy a clay jar from a man who makes them. Then take with you some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests.
This is what the Lord has said: Go and get for money a potter's bottle made of earth, and take with you some of the responsible men of the people and of the priests;
2 Go out [of the city] past the Gate of Broken Pots, to the place [overlooking the dump for broken pottery in] the Ben-Hinnom Valley. Then give them a message.
And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, by the way into the door of broken pots, and there say in a loud voice the words which I will give you;
3 Say to them, ‘[This message is for] you kings of Judah and [other] people of Jerusalem. Listen to what Yahweh is saying! The Commander of the armies of angels says that he will cause there to be a terrible disaster in [Jerusalem]. Those who hear about it will be stunned/shocked [IDM].
Say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem; the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, I will send evil on this place which will be bitter to the ears of anyone hearing of it.
4 [That will happen] because [you Israeli] people have stopped worshiping me, and have caused this place to be a place where [you worship] foreign gods. You burn sacrifices to gods that neither you nor your ancestors nor [even] the kings of Judah ever heard about. And you have filled this place with the blood of innocent people [whom you have killed].
Because they have given me up, and made this place a strange place, burning perfumes in it to other gods, of whom they and their fathers and the kings of Judah had no knowledge; and they have made this place full of the blood of those who have done no wrong;
5 You have built shrines to honor [your god] Baal, and at those shrines you have [killed] your own children and offered them to be sacrifices to Baal. I never commanded you to do that, I never spoke about doing that, I never even thought about anyone doing that.
And they have put up the high places of the Baal, burning their sons in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me, and it was never in my mind:
6 So, beware, [because I,] Yahweh, say that there will be a time when this garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or Ben-Hinnom Valley; it will be called Slaughter Valley.
For this cause, see, a time is coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be named Topheth, or, The valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The valley of Death.
7 In this place I will ruin the plans of [you people who live in] Jerusalem and in [other places in] Judah. I will allow your enemies who want to kill you to kill [many of] you with their swords. [Then] I will allow your corpses to remain on the ground to be food for vultures and wild animals.
I will make the purpose of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place; I will have them put to the sword by their haters, and by the hands of those who have designs on their life; and their dead bodies I will give to be food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth.
8 I will [completely destroy] Jerusalem and cause it to become a heap of ruins that people will despise. All the people who pass by will be appalled, and they will be shocked when they see that the city has been destroyed.
And I will make this town a thing of wonder and a cause of surprise; everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder and make sounds of surprise, because of all its troubles.
9 I will enable your enemies who want to kill you to surround the city for a long time. [Then the food will be all gone, and you people will be extremely hungry, with the result that] you people in the city will eat the flesh of your own children and your neighbors’ children.’
I will make them take the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters for food, they will be making a meal of one another, because of their bitter need and the cruel grip of their haters and those who have made designs against their life.
10 [Jeremiah, after you tell that to them], while the people who are with you are watching, smash the jar [that you brought].
Then let the potter's bottle be broken before the eyes of the men who have gone with you,
11 Then say to them, ‘This is what the Commander of the armies of angels says: “Just like this jar has been smashed and cannot be repaired, I will smash this city of Jerusalem and other places in Judah. You will bury some of your corpses here in this dump, until there is no more space to bury any more corpses.
And say to them, This is what the Lord of armies has said: Even so will this people and this town be broken by me, as a potter's bottle is broken and may not be put together again: and the bodies of the dead will be put in the earth in Topheth, till there is no more room.
12 That is what I will do to this city and to you people who live here. I will cause this city to be desecrated, like [King Josiah caused Topheth to be] a place that was unfit for people to worship me there.
This is what I will do to this place, says the Lord, and to its people, making this town like Topheth:
13 The houses in Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings of Judah will be desecrated like this place will be. All the houses where you burned incense on the rooftops to honor the stars [that you worshiped], and where you poured out wine [to be an offering] to your gods, will become (desecrated/unacceptable places for people to worship me).”’”
And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which they have made unclean, will be like the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs perfumes have been burned to all the army of heaven, and drink offerings drained out to other gods.
14 Then I returned from the garbage dump where Yahweh had sent me to tell them that message. Then I stood in the courtyard of Yahweh’s temple and said this to all the people [who were there]:
Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to give the prophet's word; and he took his place in the open square of the Lord's house, and said to all the people,
15 “This is what the Commander of the armies of angels says: ‘I will cause there to be a disaster in this city and in the villages around it like I promised, because you people have stubbornly [IDM] refused to pay attention to what I said to you.’”
The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send on this town and on all her towns all the evil which I have said; because they made their necks stiff, so that they might not give ear to my words.
