Jeremiah 19

Modern

Literal

The Broken Jar

¹This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests,

¹Thus says YHWH: “Go and acquire from a potter a clay jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests,

²and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate.

Proclaim there the words I speak to you,

²and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the Gate of the Potsherd, and proclaim there the words that I speak to you.

³saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring,

³And you shall say, ‘Hear the word of YHWH, O kings of Judah and dwellers of Jerusalem! Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold! I am bringing such disaster on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle,

⁴because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

⁴because that they have forsaken Me and made foreign this the place and burned incense in it to other gods, whom they have not known—they and not their fathers and not the kings of Judah. And they have filled this place with the blood of innocents!

⁵They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.

⁵And they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal—which I did not command and did not speak, and it did not come upon My heart!

⁶So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

⁶Therefore, behold, the days are coming, a declaration of YHWH, that this place will no longer be called Tophet, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but instead the Valley of the Slaughter.

⁷And in this place I will ruin^a the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

⁷And I will ruin the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before the face of their enemies and by the hands of those seeking their soul, and I will give their carcass as food for the bird of the heavens and for the beast of the earth!

⁸I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn.^a All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.

⁸And I will set this city as a desolation and a hissing; all passing by her will be astonished and will hiss over all her wounds.

⁹I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

⁹And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each man shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies shall press against them and those seeking their soul!’

¹⁰Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you,

¹⁰And you shall break the flask before the eyes of the men who go with you.

¹¹and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.

¹¹And you shall say to them—thus says YHWH of Hosts: Like this I will break this people and this city, just like one breaks a potter’s vessel, which is not able to be made whole again; and in Tophet they shall bury them, until there is no place to bury.

¹²This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth.

¹²Thus I will do to this place, a declaration of YHWH, and to its dwellers, so as to give this city to be like Tophet!

¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

¹³And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like the place of Tophet, the defiled place, even all the houses on whose roofs they burned incense to all the host of the heavens and poured out drink offerings to other gods.

¹⁴Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and proclaimed to all the people,

¹⁴And Jeremiah came from Tophet, where YHWH had sent him there to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of YHWH and said to all the people,

¹⁵“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and on all the villages around it every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”

¹⁵“Thus says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing on this city and on all her towns all the disaster that I have spoken against her, because they have stiffened their necks, that they might not hear My words.’”