This 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 ,
and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom ... - near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there - the words - I speak to you ,
saying , ‘ 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 ,
because - they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign - place. They have burned incense 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.
They 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.
So 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.
And in this place I will ruin - 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.
I will make - this city a desolation and an (object of) scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.
I 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 by their enemies who seek their lives. ’
Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you ,
and 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).
This is what I will do to this place and to its residents , declares the LORD. I will make - this city like Topheth.
The 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.”
Then 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 ,
“ 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. ’”