Jeremiah 19
19
The Broken Jar
1This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. 2Go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Go near the front of the Potsherd Gate. Take some of the elders of the people and priests with you. There speak the words I tell you. 3Say, ‘King of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to this message from the Lord. This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: I will soon bring a disaster on this place! Everyone who hears about it will be amazed and full of fear. 4I will do this because the people of Judah have quit following me. They have made this a place for foreign gods. They have burned sacrifices to other gods. They did not worship these gods long ago! Their ancestors didn’t worship these gods. The kings of Judah filled this place with the blood of the innocent people. 5The kings of Judah have built places to worship Baal. There they burn their sons in the fire to Baal. I did not speak about it or tell them to do that. I never even thought of such a thing. 6Now people call this place the Valley of Ben Hinnom or Topheth. But watch out! The days are coming, says the Lord, when people will call this place the Valley of Killing.
7“‘At this place I will ruin the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The enemy will chase them. And I will let the people of Judah be killed with swords. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild animals. 8I will completely destroy this city. People will make fun of it and hiss at it. And they will shake their heads when they pass by Jerusalem. They will be shocked when they see how the city was destroyed. 9An enemy army will surround the city. They will not let anyone go out to get food. The people will become so hungry they will eat the bodies of their own sons and daughters. And then they will begin to eat each other.’”
10The Lord said, “While the people with you are watching, break that jar. 11Then say this: ‘The Lord of heaven’s armies says: I will break this nation and this city just as someone breaks a clay jar. It cannot be put back together again. The dead people will be buried here in Topheth. We will bury bodies until there is no more room. 12This is what I will do to these people and to this place, says the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13The houses in Jerusalem and the king’s palaces will become as unclean as this place, Topheth. This is because the people worshiped false gods on the roofs# In Bible times houses were built with flat roofs. The roof was used for drying things such as flax and fruit. And it was used as an extra room, as a place for worship and as a place to sleep in the summer. of their houses. They worshiped the stars and burned incense to honor them. They gave drink offerings to false gods.’”
14Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the Lord had told him to prophesy. He went to the Lord’s Temple, stood in the courtyard and said to all the people: 15“This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I said I would bring disaster to Jerusalem and the villages around it. I will make it happen soon! This is because the people are very stubborn. They do not listen at all to what I say.’”
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Jeremiah 19: ICB
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Jeremiah 19
19
Shattering a Clay Jar
1Thus said Adonai: “Go, buy a potter’s clay jar, take some elders of the people, some elders of the kohanim,
2and go out to the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words that I will tell you,
3and say, “Hear the word of Adonai, kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: ‘I am about to bring such a catastrophe on this place that whoever hears about it, his ears will tingle.
4For they have forsaken Me and have alienated this place, by burning sacrifices in it to other gods, which neither they nor their forefathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocents.
5They have built high places for Baal, in order to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal—something I never commanded, nor mentioned, nor did it ever come into My mind.’”
6“Therefore behold, the days are coming”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth or The Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7So I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will have them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of them that seek their life. I will give their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
8And I will make this city a horror and a hissing—every one passing by will be stunned and hiss because of all her wounds.
9And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone will eat his companion’s flesh during the siege and distress, which their enemies and those who seek their life will inflict on them.
10“Then you will shatter the jar in the presence of the people who accompany you,
11and say to them, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: ‘Even so I will shatter this people and this city, as one shatters a potter’s jar, which can never be made whole again. So they will be burying in Topheth, for there will be no other place to bury.’”
12“Thus I will do to this place”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“and to its inhabitants, making this city as Topheth.
13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be as defiled as the place Topheth—all the houses on whose roofs they burned incense to the whole heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”
14Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Adonai had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of Adonai’s House, and said to all the people,
15thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “I am about to bring on this city and on all her towns the whole disaster that I pronounced against it, because they stiffened their neck, rather than hearing My words.”
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Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society