Jeremiah 19

₁The Lord said: ‘You must go and buy a clay pot that the potter has made and baked in his oven. Take a few of the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests with you ₂and go to the Ben-Hinnom Valley near the Potsherd Gate. There you must speak loudly and say what I will tell you. ₃You must say: “Kings_of_Judah and people who live in Jerusalem, listen to what the Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says. He says: “‘I am going to bring a lot of trouble to the people in this place, in Jerusalem. Everyone who hears about it will be shocked, and will not believe it.”’ ”

₄This will happen because they have turned away from Me. They have made this place impure and they have given incense-offerings to other gods here, gods that they and their forefathers and the kings_of_Judah did not know before. And they have killed a lot of innocent people here. ₅They also built places_of_sacrifice for Baal to burn their sons as burnt-offerings to that idol. I had told them before not to do it. I had never thought of anything like that. ₆So now I say: “The time will come when people will no longer name this place: “‘Topheth”’ or “‘Ben-Hinnom Valley”’. They will name it “‘Murder Valley”’.

₇The people of Judah and Jerusalem have made plans to do something wrong, but I will break their plans here like I am going to break this clay pot. I will bring their enemies to kill them with swords and I will leave their dead bodies lying here for the birds and wild animals to eat. ₈People will be shocked when they see this city and they will whistle. Everyone who walks through this city will tremble and whistle because the enemies have destroyed this city completely. ₉I will bring enemies that want to kill the people of this city. The enemies will wait around the city and no one will be able to go out of the city. Then the people of the city will start killing and eating their own children and each other.”

₁₀Jeremiah, then you must break the clay pot so that the people with you can see it ₁₁and you must tell them that the Lord who rules over all says: “Jeremiah has broken this clay pot and no one can repair it or put the pieces back together again. That is how I will break this people and this city too. They will bury the people who have died here in Topheth because there will not be another place to make graves. ₁₂This is what I will do to this city and the people who live here. I will make them like Topheth. ₁₃The enemies will destroy the houses in Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings_of_Judah as they destroyed the town of Topheth. The houses and palaces have become impure because the people of Jerusalem and the kings_of_Judah gave incense-offerings to the sun, moon and stars. They did it on the roofs of their houses and they poured out drink-offerings to other gods.” ’

₁₄Then Jeremiah came back from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to give this message. Jeremiah went to the courtyard of the temple and he stood there and talked to all the people. He said: ₁₅‘The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: “The people from this city and the villages around it were stubborn, and they did not listen to Me. That is why I will make all the bad things happen to them that I told them about.” ’