CHAPTER 19

1 Thus saith Jehovah, — Go and get a potter’s vessel, even with the elders of the people and with the elders of the priests;

2 And enter into the valley of Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the oriental gate, and proclaim there the words which I shall speak to thee:

3 And thou shalt say, Hear the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, — Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, — Behold I bring an evil on this place, The which whosoever hears, tingle shall his ears:

4 Because they have forsaken me, And have alienated this place, And have made incense in it to foreign gods, Whom they have not themselves known, Nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah, And have filled this place With the blood of innocents:

5 And they have built high places to Baal, To burn their sons with fire, For a burnt-offering to Baal; Which I have not commanded nor spoken of, And which came not into my mind.

6 Therefore behold the days shall come, saith Jehovah, When this place shall no more be called Tophet, Nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, But, The valley of slaughter:

7 And void will I make the counsel of Judah And of Jerusalem in this place, And lay them prostrate by the sword before their enemies, And by the hand of those who seek their life; And I will give their carcasses for meat To the birds of heaven and to the beasts of the earth;

8 And will set this city For an astonishment and for hissing; Whosoever shall pass through it shall be astonished, And shall hiss on account of all her stroke:

9 And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, And with the flesh of their daughters; And they shall eat, every one the flesh of his friend, In the tribulation and straitness, By which their enemies shall straiten them, And those who seek their life.

10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the presence of the men who shall go with thee;

11 And thou shalt say to them, — Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — So will I break this people and this city, As one breaks an earthen vessel, Which can no more be repaired: And in Tophet shall they be buried, For there will be no other place to bury them:

12 Thus will I do to this place, Saith Jehovah, and to its inhabitants, I will even make this city like Tophet;

13 For the houses of Jerusalem, And the houses of the kings of Judah, Shall be, like the place of Tophet, unclean, Even all the houses, on whose roofs They have made incense to all the host of heaven, And poured a libation to foreign gods.

14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, where Jehovah had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the house of Jehovah, and said to the whole people, —

15 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, — Behold, I will bring upon this city And upon all her towns, all the evil Which I have pronounced against her; Because they have hardened their neck, That they might not hear my words.