Jeremiah
Chapter 19
1 God says, “Go and get a clay jar from a potter, and bring some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests.”
2 Go to the Valley of Hinnom, near the entrance of the east gate, and announce the words I will give you.
3 Say, “Listen to God’s message, kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem: God of the armies of heaven, the God of Israel, says, ‘Look, I will bring disaster on this place, and whoever hears about it will have their ears ring.’”
4 Because they left me and made this place strange, and burned incense here to other gods that neither they, their ancestors, nor Judah’s kings knew, and filled this place with innocent blood;
5 They also made high places for Baal, to burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal, something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it ever cross my mind.
6 So, look, the days are coming, says God, when this place will not be called Tophet or the Valley of Hinnom’s son, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7 I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem here; I will make them die by the sword in front of their enemies, by those who want to kill them: and I will leave their dead bodies as food for the birds in the sky, and for the animals on the land.
8 I will make this city empty and a place for hissing; everyone who passes by will be shocked and hiss at all its disasters.
9 I will make them eat their sons’ and daughters’ flesh, and they will eat their friends’ flesh during the siege and hardship that their enemies and those who want to kill them will cause.
10 Then you will break the bottle while the men with you watch.
11 Tell them, ‘This is what God says: Just as a clay pot is smashed and can’t be fixed, I will break this nation and this city. They will bury the dead in Tophet until there’s no more room to bury them.’
12 I will do this to this place, says God, and to its people, and even make this city like Tophet.
13 The homes in Jerusalem and the homes of Judah’s kings will be unclean like Tophet because on their roofs they burned incense to the sky’s stars and gave drink offerings to other gods.
14 Jeremiah returned from Tophet, where God had sent him to give his message. He stood in the courtyard of God’s house and spoke to all the people.
15 God of Israel says, I will make all the bad things happen to this city and its towns that I said would happen, because they were stubborn and did not listen to my words.