Jeremiah 19

1 Thus says the Lord: “Go, and take a potter’s earthen bottle from the elders of the people and from the elders 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 out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is near the entrance to the earthen gate, and there you shall proclaim the words that I will speak to you.

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 you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead an affliction over this place, so much so that it will ring in the ears of all who hear about it.

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 For they have abandoned me, and they have made this place foreign, and they have offered libations in it to foreign gods, whom neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

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 exalted places of Baal, in order to burn their children with fire as a holocaust to Baal, something that I did not instruct or speak of, nor did it enter into my heart.

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 Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, 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 scatter the counsel of Judah and of Jerusalem in this place. And I will overthrow them with the sword, in the sight of their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives. And I will give their carcasses to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the land as food.

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 set this city amid stupor and hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be stupefied, and they will hiss over all its wounds.

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 each one of them will eat the flesh of his friend during the blockade and the embargo by which their enemies, and those who seek their lives, will enclose 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 neighbor in the blockade, and in the siege wherewith their enemies shall besiege them.

10 And you shall crush the bottle in the sight of the men who will go with you.

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

11 And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: In the same way, I will crush this people and this city, just as the potter’s vessel was crushed and cannot be made whole again. And they will be buried at Topheth, because there will be no other place for burial.

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 So will I do to this place and to its inhabitants, says the Lord. And I will make this city to be like 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 the kings of Judah will be unclean, just like the place of Topheth: all the houses on whose roofs they sacrificed to all the armies of heaven and poured out libations 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 Jeremiah arrived from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the atrium of the house of the Lord, and he said to all the 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 says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead over this community, and over all its cities, all the evils that I have spoken against it. For they have hardened their necks, so that they would not heed 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.