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Jeremiah 11-19

Israel and Judah Have Broken the Covenant

11The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 3You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, 4which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron-smelter, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, 5that I may perform the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then I answered, ‘So be it, Lord.’

And the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 7For I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. 8Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of an evil will. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.

And the Lord said to me: Conspiracy exists among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors of old, who refused to heed my words; they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors. 11Therefore, thus says the Lord, assuredly I am going to bring disaster upon them that they cannot escape; though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. 12Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they will never save them in the time of their trouble. 13For your gods have become as many as your towns, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars to shame that you have set up, altars to make offerings to Baal.

14 As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. 15What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done vile deeds? Can vows* and sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? 16The Lord once called you, ‘A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit’; but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. 17The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.

Jeremiah’s Life Threatened


18 It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;
   then you showed me their evil deeds.
19 But I was like a gentle lamb
   led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
   that they devised schemes, saying,
‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
   let us cut him off from the land of the living,
   so that his name will no longer be remembered!’
20 But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
   who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
   for to you I have committed my cause.

21 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the people of Anathoth, who seek your life, and say, ‘You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand’— 22therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to punish them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; 23and not even a remnant shall be left of them. For I will bring disaster upon the people of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.

Jeremiah Complains to God

12You will be in the right, O Lord,
   when I lay charges against you;
   but let me put my case to you.
Why does the way of the guilty prosper?
   Why do all who are treacherous thrive?
2 You plant them, and they take root;
   they grow and bring forth fruit;
you are near in their mouths
   yet far from their hearts.
3 But you, O Lord, know me;
   You see me and test me—my heart is with you.
Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,
   and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
4 How long will the land mourn,
   and the grass of every field wither?
For the wickedness of those who live in it
   the animals and the birds are swept away,
   and because people said, ‘He is blind to our ways.’*

God Replies to Jeremiah


5 If you have raced with foot-runners and they have wearied you,
   how will you compete with horses?
And if in a safe land you fall down,
   how will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan?
6 For even your kinsfolk and your own family,
   even they have dealt treacherously with you;
   they are in full cry after you;
do not believe them,
   though they speak friendly words to you.


7 I have forsaken my house,
   I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my heart
   into the hands of her enemies.
8 My heritage has become to me
   like a lion in the forest;
she has lifted up her voice against me—
   therefore I hate her.
9 Is the hyena greedy* for my heritage at my command?
   Are the birds of prey all around her?
Go, assemble all the wild animals;
   bring them to devour her.
10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard,
   they have trampled down my portion,
they have made my pleasant portion
   a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it a desolation;
   desolate, it mourns to me.
The whole land is made desolate,
   but no one lays it to heart.
12 Upon all the bare heights* in the desert
   spoilers have come;
for the sword of the Lord devours
   from one end of the land to the other;
   no one shall be safe.
13 They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns,
   they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.
They shall be ashamed of their* harvests
   because of the fierce anger of the Lord.

14 Thus says the Lord concerning all my evil neighbours who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: I am about to pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. 15And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again to their heritage and to their land, every one of them. 16And then, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives’, as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. 17But if any nation will not listen, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it, says the Lord.

The Linen Loincloth

13Thus said the Lord to me, ‘Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth, and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.’ 2So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins. 3And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, 4‘Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates,* and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.’ 5So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates,* as the Lord commanded me. 6And after many days the Lord said to me, ‘Go now to the Euphrates,* and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.’ 7Then I went to the Euphrates,* and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9Thus says the Lord: Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing. 11For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.

Symbol of the Wine-Jars

12 You shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every wine-jar should be filled with wine. And they will say to you, ‘Do you think we do not know that every wine-jar should be filled with wine?’ 13Then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness. 14And I will dash them one against another, parents and children together, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion when I destroy them.

Exile Threatened


15 Hear and give ear; do not be haughty,
   for the Lord has spoken.
16 Give glory to the Lord your God
   before he brings darkness,
and before your feet stumble
   on the mountains at twilight;
while you look for light,
   he turns it into gloom
   and makes it deep darkness.
17 But if you will not listen,
   my soul will weep in secret for your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears,
   because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.


18 Say to the king and the queen mother:
   ‘Take a lowly seat,
for your beautiful crown
   has come down from your head.’*
19 The towns of the Negeb are shut up
   with no one to open them;
all Judah is taken into exile,
   wholly taken into exile.


20 Lift up your eyes and see
   those who come from the north.
Where is the flock that was given you,
   your beautiful flock?
21 What will you say when they set as head over you
   those whom you have trained
   to be your allies?
Will not pangs take hold of you,
   like those of a woman in labour?
22 And if you say in your heart,
   ‘Why have these things come upon me?’
it is for the greatness of your iniquity
   that your skirts are lifted up,
   and you are violated.
23 Can Ethiopians* change their skin
   or leopards their spots?
Then also you can do good
   who are accustomed to do evil.
24 I will scatter you* like chaff
   driven by the wind from the desert.
25 This is your lot,
   the portion I have measured out to you, says the Lord,
because you have forgotten me
   and trusted in lies.
26 I myself will lift up your skirts over your face,
   and your shame will be seen.
27 I have seen your abominations,
   your adulteries and neighings, your shameless prostitutions
   on the hills of the countryside.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
   How long will it be
   before you are made clean?

The Great Drought

14The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2 Judah mourns
   and her gates languish;
they lie in gloom on the ground,
   and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3 Her nobles send their servants for water;
   they come to the cisterns,
they find no water,
   they return with their vessels empty.
They are ashamed and dismayed
   and cover their heads,
4 because the ground is cracked.
   Because there has been no rain on the land
the farmers are dismayed;
   they cover their heads.
5 Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
   because there is no grass.
6 The wild asses stand on the bare heights,*
   they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
   because there is no herbage.


7 Although our iniquities testify against us,
   act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
our apostasies indeed are many,
   and we have sinned against you.
8 O hope of Israel,
   its saviour in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
   like a traveller turning aside for the night?
9 Why should you be like someone confused,
   like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
   and we are called by your name;
   do not forsake us!


10 Thus says the Lord concerning this people:
Truly they have loved to wander,
   they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the Lord does not accept them,
   now he will remember their iniquity
   and punish their sins.

11 The Lord said to me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12Although they fast, I do not hear their cry, and although they offer burnt-offering and grain-offering, I do not accept them; but by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I consume them.

Denunciation of Lying Prophets

13 Then I said: ‘Ah, Lord God! Here are the prophets saying to them, “You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.” 14And the Lord said to me: The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds. 15Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name though I did not send them, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not come on this land’: By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. 16And the people to whom they prophesy shall be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword. There shall be no one to bury them—themselves, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their wickedness upon them.


17 You shall say to them this word:
Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,
   and let them not cease,
for the virgin daughter—my people—is struck down with a crushing blow,
   with a very grievous wound.
18 If I go out into the field,
   look—those killed by the sword!
And if I enter the city,
   look—those sick with* famine!
For both prophet and priest ply their trade throughout the land,
   and have no knowledge.

The People Plead for Mercy


19 Have you completely rejected Judah?
   Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
   so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace, but find no good;
   for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
   the iniquity of our ancestors,
   for we have sinned against you.
21 Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
   do not dishonour your glorious throne;
   remember and do not break your covenant with us.
22 Can any idols of the nations bring rain?
   Or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
   We set our hope on you,
   for it is you who do all this.

Punishment Is Inevitable

15Then the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn towards this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! 2And when they say to you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord:
Those destined for pestilence, to pestilence,
   and those destined for the sword, to the sword;
those destined for famine, to famine,
   and those destined for captivity, to captivity.
3And I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the wild animals of the earth to devour and destroy. 4I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what King Manasseh son of Hezekiah of Judah did in Jerusalem.


5 Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
   or who will bemoan you?
Who will turn aside
   to ask about your welfare?
6 You have rejected me, says the Lord,
   you are going backwards;
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
   I am weary of relenting.
7 I have winnowed them with a winnowing-fork
   in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them, I have destroyed my people;
   they did not turn from their ways.
8 Their widows became more numerous
   than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of youths
   a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
   fall upon her suddenly.
9 She who bore seven has languished;
   she has swooned away;
her sun went down while it was yet day;
   she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
   before their enemies,

says the Lord.

Jeremiah Complains Again and Is Reassured

10 Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. 11The Lord said: Surely I have intervened in your life* for good, surely I have imposed enemies on you in a time of trouble and in a time of distress.* 12Can iron and bronze break iron from the north?

13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. 14I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn for ever.
15Lord, you know;
   remember me and visit me,
   and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors.
In your forbearance do not take me away;
   know that on your account I suffer insult.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them,
   and your words became to me a joy
   and the delight of my heart;
for I am called by your name,
   O Lord, God of hosts.
17 I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,
   nor did I rejoice;
under the weight of your hand I sat alone,
   for you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unceasing,
   my wound incurable,
   refusing to be healed?
Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook,
   like waters that fail.


19 Therefore, thus says the Lord:
If you turn back, I will take you back,
   and you shall stand before me.
If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,
   you shall serve as my mouth.
It is they who will turn to you,
   not you who will turn to them.
20 And I will make you to this people
   a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you,
   but they shall not prevail over you,
for I am with you
   to save you and deliver you,

says the Lord.
21 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
   and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.

Jeremiah’s Celibacy and Message

16The word of the Lord came to me: 2You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them and the fathers who beget them in this land: 4They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall become like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth.

For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my steadfast love and mercy. 6Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them; there shall be no gashing, no shaving of the head for them. 7No one shall break bread* for the mourner, to offer comfort for the dead; nor shall anyone give them the cup of consolation to drink for their fathers or their mothers. 8You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. 9For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11then you shall say to them: It is because your ancestors have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshipped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law; 12and because you have behaved worse than your ancestors, for here you are, every one of you, following your stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favour.

God Will Restore Israel

14 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt’, 15but ‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.

16 I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight. 18And* I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.


19Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
   my refuge on the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
   from the ends of the earth and say:
Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies,
   worthless things in which there is no profit.
20 Can mortals make for themselves gods?
   Such are no gods!

21 ‘Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.’

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

17The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts, and on the horns of their altars, 2while their children remember their altars and their sacred poles,* beside every green tree, and on the high hills, 3on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your sin* throughout all your territory. 4By your own act you shall lose the heritage that I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled* that shall burn for ever.


5 Thus says the Lord:
Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
   and make mere flesh their strength,
   whose hearts turn away from the Lord.
6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
   and shall not see when relief comes.
They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
   in an uninhabited salt land.


7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
   whose trust is the Lord.
8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,
   sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
   and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
   and it does not cease to bear fruit.


9 The heart is devious above all else;
   it is perverse—
   who can understand it?
10 I the Lord test the mind
   and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
   according to the fruit of their doings.


11 Like the partridge hatching what it did not lay,
   so are all who amass wealth unjustly;
in mid-life it will leave them,
   and at their end they will prove to be fools.


12 O glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,
   shrine of our sanctuary!
13 O hope of Israel! O Lord!
   All who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you* shall be recorded in the underworld,*
   for they have forsaken the fountain of living water, the Lord.

Jeremiah Prays for Vindication


14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
   save me, and I shall be saved;
   for you are my praise.
15 See how they say to me,
   ‘Where is the word of the Lord?
   Let it come!’
16 But I have not run away from being a shepherd* in your service,
   nor have I desired the fatal day.
You know what came from my lips;
   it was before your face.
17 Do not become a terror to me;
   you are my refuge on the day of disaster;
18 Let my persecutors be shamed,
   but do not let me be shamed;
let them be dismayed,
   but do not let me be dismayed;
bring on them the day of disaster;
   destroy them with double destruction!

Hallow the Sabbath Day

19 Thus said the Lord to me: Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20and say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21Thus says the Lord: For the sake of your lives, take care that you do not bear a burden on the sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the sabbath or do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. 23Yet they did not listen or incline their ear; they stiffened their necks and would not hear or receive instruction.

24 But if you listen to me, says the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but keep the sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings* who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall be inhabited for ever. 26And people shall come from the towns of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt-offerings and sacrifices, grain-offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank-offerings to the house of the Lord. 27But if you do not listen to me, to keep the sabbath day holy, and to carry in no burden through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates; it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.

The Potter and the Clay

18The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. 9And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, 10but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. 11Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Israel’s Stubborn Idolatry

12 But they say, ‘It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.’


13 Therefore, thus says the Lord:
Ask among the nations:
   Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel has done
   a most horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
   the crags of Sirion?*
Do the mountain* waters run dry,*
   the cold flowing streams?
15 But my people have forgotten me,
   they burn offerings to a delusion;
they have stumbled* in their ways,
   in the ancient roads,
and have gone into bypaths,
   not the highway,
16 making their land a horror,
   a thing to be hissed at for ever.
All who pass by it are horrified
   and shake their heads.
17 Like the wind from the east,
   I will scatter them before the enemy.
I will show them my back, not my face,
   on the day of their calamity.

A Plot against Jeremiah

18 Then they said, ‘Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah—for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him,* and let us not heed any of his words.’


19 Give heed to me, O Lord,
   and listen to what my adversaries say!
20 Is evil a recompense for good?
   Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before you
   to speak good for them,
   to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore give their children over to famine;
   hurl them out to the power of the sword,
let their wives become childless and widowed.
   May their men meet death by pestilence,
   their youths be slain by the sword in battle.
22 May a cry be heard from their houses,
   when you bring the marauder suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to catch me,
   and laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet you, O Lord, know
   all their plotting to kill me.
Do not forgive their iniquity,
   do not blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be tripped up before you;
   deal with them while you are angry.

The Broken Earthenware Jug

19Thus said the Lord: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with you* some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, 2and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3You shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4Because the people have forsaken me, and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, 5and gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt-offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind; 6therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter. 7And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth. 8And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters. 9And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and all shall eat the flesh of their neighbours in the siege, and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.

10 Then you shall break the jug in the sight of those who go with you, 11and shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. In Topheth they shall bury until there is no more room to bury. 12Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth—all the houses upon whose roofs offerings have been made to the whole host of heaven, and libations have been poured out to other gods.

14 When Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: 15Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am now bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words.

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v 2.9.2
30 June 2021

From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.