Jeremiah 19

1 Thus said Yahweh, Go and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, —and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

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.

2 Then shalt thou go forth into the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is at the opening of the gate of potsherds; and proclaim there the words which I shall speak unto thee;

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.

3 and shalt say, —Hear ye the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah And inhabitants of Jerusalem, —Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts—God of Israel Behold me! bringing in calamity upon this place, which shall cause the ears of every one that heareth it, to tingle:

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].

4 Because they have forsaken me, And have treated this as a foreign place, And have burned incense therein to other gods, which neither they, nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah, have known; And have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

[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].

5 And have built the high places of Baal for burning up their sons in the fire as ascending-sacrifices to Baal, —Which I commanded not, Nor spake, Neither came it up on my heart,

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.

6 Therefore, lo! days coming, Declareth Yahweh, When this place shall be called no longer The Topheth, or The Valley of Ben-hinnom, —but—The Valley of Slaughter;

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.

7 And I will pour out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, And I will cause them to fall by the sword, before their enemies, and by the hand of them who seek their life, —

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.

8 And I will give their dead bodies for food, to the bird of the heavens and to the beast of the earth; And I will make this city a desolation and a hissing, —every one that passeth by it, shall be astonished and hiss over all her wounds;

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.

9 And I will suffer them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, yea every one—the flesh of his friend, will they eat, —in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith, their enemies, and they who seek their lives, will straiten them.

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.’

10 Then shalt thou break the bottle, before the eyes of the men who are walking with thee;

[Jeremiah, after you tell that to them], while the people who are with you are watching, smash the jar [that you brought].

11 and shalt say unto them—Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts—Thus and thus, will I break this people, and this city, As one breaketh the vessel of a potter, which cannot be made whole any more, —And in Topheth, shall they bury, for want of place to bury.

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.

12 Thus, will I do to this place Declareth Yahweh, And to the inhabitants thereof, —Even making this city like Topheth:

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.

13 Yea, the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall like the place of Topheth, be places defiled, —even all the houses upon whose roofs they burned incense to all the host of the heavens, and poured out drink-offerings to other gods.

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).”’”

14 Then entered Jeremiah out of Topheth, whither Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, —and stood in the court of the house of Yahweh, and said unto all the people:

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]:

15 Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, Behold me! brining in against this city, and upon all the cities thereof, The whole calamity which I have pronounced against her, —Because they stiffened their neck, that they might not hear my words.

“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.’”