World English Bible, British Edition
Jeremiah • Chapter 19
1
Thus said the LORD, “Go, and buy a potter’s earthen container, and take
some of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests;
2
and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry
of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I will tell you.
3
Say, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem:
The LORD of Armies, the God (Elohim) of Israel says, “Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears,
his ears will tingle.
4
Because they have forsaken me, and have defiled this place, and have
burnt incense in it to other gods that they didn’t know—they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah—and
have filled this place with the blood of innocents,
5
and have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the
fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I didn’t command, nor speak, which didn’t even enter into my mind.
6
Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that this place will
no more be called ‘Topheth’, nor ‘The Valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’.
7
“‘“I will make the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem void in this
place. I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek
their life. I will give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the
earth.
8
I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes
by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
9
I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their
daughters. They will each eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress with which their
enemies, and those who seek their life, will distress them.”’
10
“Then you shall break the container in the sight of the men
who go with you,
11
and shall tell them, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “Even so I will break
this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that can’t be made whole again. They will bury
in Topheth until there is no place to bury.
12
This is what I will do to this place,” says the LORD, “and to its inhabitants,
even making this city as Topheth.
13
The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, which
are defiled, will be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burnt incense
to all the army of the sky and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”
14
Then 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:
15
“The LORD of Armies, the God (Elohim) of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring
on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have made
their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.’”