1 This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a clay jar
from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the
people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of
Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate.
There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, 'Hear the
word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and people of
Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of
Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster onthis placde that will make the ears of everyone whohears of it tingle. 4 For they have forsaken me andmade this a place of foreign gods; they have burnedincense in it to gods that neither they nor theirancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and theyhave filled this place with the blood of the innocent.5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn theirchildren in the fire as offerings to Baal--something I didnot command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. 6 Sobeware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, whenpeople will no longer call this place Topheth or theValley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 " 'In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah andJerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword beforetheir enemies, at the hands of those who want to killthem, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birdsand the wild animals. 8 I will devastate this city andmake it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass bywill be appalled and will scoff because of all itswounds. 9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sonsand daughters, and they will eat one another's fleshbecause their enemies will press the siege so hardagainst them to destroy them.' 10 "Then break the jar while those who go with youare watching, 11 and say to them, 'This is what the LORD
Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city justas this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired.They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is nomore room. 12 This is what I will do to this place and tothose who live here, declares the LORD. I will make thiscity like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem and thoseof the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place,Topheth-- all the houses where they burned incense onthe roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drinkofferings to other gods.' " 14 Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where theLORD had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the courtif the LORD'd temple and said to all the people, 15 "Thisis what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says:'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all thevillages around it every disaster I pronounced againstthem, because they were stiff-necked and would notlisten to my words.' "