Jeremiah 19:1-15 - The Valley Of The Slaughter

¹ Thus said the LORD, "Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and take some of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; ² and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you; ³ and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle. ⁴ Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they did not know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ⁵ and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I did not command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

⁶ therefore, behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter. ⁷ I will make void 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 those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. ⁸ I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. ⁹ I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them."'

¹⁰ Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹ and shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury. ¹² Thus will I do to this place," says the LORD, "and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth: ¹³ and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods."'"

¹⁴ Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house, and said to all the people: ¹⁵ "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.'"

²⁸ You shall tell them, 'This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the LORD their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. ²⁹ Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.'"

³⁰ "For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight," says the LORD: "they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹ They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

³² Therefore behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury. ³³ The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. ³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste."

¹ "At that time," says the LORD, "they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his officials, 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 they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth. ³ Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them," says the LORD of hosts.