Jeremiah 19:1-15 - The Valley Of The Slaughter
1 Thus said Yahweh, Go and buy a potters earthen bottle, - and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; 2 Then shalt thou go forth into the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is at the opening of the gate of potsherds; and proclaim there the words which I shall speak unto thee; 3 and shalt say, - Hear ye the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah And inhabitants of Jerusalem, - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts - God of Israel Behold me! bringing in calamity upon this place, which shall cause the ears of every one that heareth it, to tingle: 4 Because they have forsaken me, And have treated this as a foreign place, And have burned incense therein to other gods, which neither they, nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah, have known; And have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 And have built the high places of Baal for burning up their sons in the fire as ascending-sacrifices to Baal, - Which I commanded not, Nor spake, Neither came it up on my heart,
6 Therefore, lo! days coming, Declareth Yahweh, When this place shall be called no longer The Topheth, or The Valley of Ben-hinnom, - but - The Valley of Slaughter; 7 And I will pour out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, And I will cause them to fall by the sword, before their enemies, and by the hand of them who seek their life, - 8 And I will give their dead bodies for food, to the bird of the heavens and to the beast of the earth; And I will make this city a desolation and a hissing, - every one that passeth by it, shall be astonished and hiss over all her wounds; 9 And I will suffer them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, yea every one - the flesh of his friend, will they eat, - in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith, their enemies, and they who seek their lives, will straiten them.
10 Then shalt thou break the bottle, before the eyes of the men who are walking with thee; 11 and shalt say unto them - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts - Thus and thus, will I break this people, and this city, As one breaketh the vessel of a potter, which cannot be made whole any more, - And in Topheth, shall they bury, for want of place to bury. 12 Thus, will I do to this place Declareth Yahweh, And to the inhabitants thereof, - Even making this city like Topheth: 13 Yea, the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall like the place of Topheth, be places defiled, - even all the houses upon whose roofs they burned incense to all the host of the heavens, and poured out drink-offerings to other gods.
14 Then entered Jeremiah out of Topheth, whither Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, - and stood in the court of the house of Yahweh, and said unto all the people: 15 Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, Behold me! brining in against this city, and upon all the cities thereof, The whole calamity which I have pronounced against her, - Because they stiffened their neck, that they might not hear my words.
28 But thou shalt say unto them, - This, is the nation that hearkened not unto the voice of Yahweh its God, Neither accepted they correction, - Perished is fidelity, And is cut off out of their mouth. 29 Cut thou off thy crown of hair O Jerusalem , and cast it away, And lift thou up on the bare heights, a dirge, - For Yahweh hath rejected and cast out the generation with which he was wroth.
30 For the sons of Judah, have done, that which was wicked in mine eyes, Declareth Yahweh, - They have set their abominations in the house whereon my Name hath been called to defile it; 31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, To burn up their sons and their daughters in the fire, - Which I commanded not, Neither came it up on my heart,
32 Therefore, lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh, When it shall not be called any more - The Topheth, nor The valley of Ben-hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter, - And they shall bury in Topheth, for want of place; 33 And the dead bodies of this people shall become food, For the bird of the heavens, and For the beast of the earth, - And there shall be none to drive them away. 34 So will I cause to cease, From the cities of Judah, and, From the streets of Jerusalem, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, The voice of the bridegroom, and The voice of the bride, - For, a desolation, shall the land become.
1 At that time, Declareth Yahweh, Shall they bring forth, The bones of the kings of Judah, and The bones of his princes, and The bones of the priests, and The bones of the prophets, and The bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Out of their graves, 2 And shall spread them out - To the sun, and To the moon, and To all the host of the heavens, Whom they have loved, And whom they have served, And after whom they have walked, And whom they have sought, And to whom they have bowed themselves down, - They shall not be gathered, Neither shall they be buried, As heaps of dung on the face of the ground, shall they be. 3 Then shall, death, be chosen rather than life, by all the remnant of them that remain, of this wicked family, - in all the places, whither I have driven them, Declareth Yahweh of hosts.