The Clay Jar
1This is what the Lord says: “Go, buy a potter’s clay19:1 Jr 18:2 jar. Take19:1 Syr, Tg; MT omits Take some of the elders of the people and some of the leading priests19:1 2Kg 19:2
2and go out to Ben Hinnom Valley19:2 2Kg 23:10; 2Ch 28:3; Jr 7:31–32 near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you.
3Say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.19:3 Jr 17:20 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder19:3 Lit about it, his ears will tingle; Hb obscure19:3 1Sm 3:11; 2Kg 21:12
4because they have abandoned me19:4 Dt 28:20; 31:16; 1Sm 8:8; 1Kg 11:33; 2Kg 22:17; 2Ch 34:25; Jr 1:16; 5:7 and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their ancestors, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.19:4 Dt 19:10; 27:25; 2Kg 21:6,16; 24:4; Is 59:7; Jr 2:34
6“‘Therefore, look, the days are coming19:6 Jr 7:32; 16:14; 23:5; 48:12; 49:2; 51:47,52 — this is the Lord’s declaration — when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley.19:6 Jr 25:34
7I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who intend to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.19:7 Dt 28:26; Ps 79:2; Jr 7:33; 15:3; 16:4
8I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be appalled and scoff because of all its wounds.19:8 Dt 28:37; 2Ch 29:8; 30:7; Jr 5:30; 25:9,18; 29:18; 42:18; 44:12,22; 49:17; 50:13; Mc 1:9; 6:16; Nah 3:19; Zph 2:15
9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other’s flesh in the distressing siege inflicted on them by their enemies who intend to take their life.’19:9 Dt 28:53–57; Lm 4:10; Ezk 5:10
10“Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people going with you,
11and you are to proclaim to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials.19:11 Jr 7:32
12That is what I will do to this place — this is the declaration of the Lord — and to its residents, making this city like Topheth.
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