1These are the words of the LORD: Go and buy from the potter an earthenware jar, and taking with you some of the elders of the people and some priests,
2go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom, on which the Gate of the Potsherds opens, and there proclaim what I tell you.
3Say: Hear the word of the LORD, you princes of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem. These are the words of the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel: I am about to bring on this place such a disaster as will ring in the ears of all who hear of it,
4because they have forsaken me, and made this a place of alien worship. They have burnt sacrifices to other gods whom neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
5They have built shrines to Baal, at which to burn their sons as whole-offerings to Baal. That was no command of mine, a thing I never spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind.
6Therefore the time is coming, says the LORD, when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter.
7In this place I shall make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem; I shall make the people fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who seek to kill them; I shall give their corpses to the birds and beasts to devour.
8I shall make this city a scene of desolation, an object of astonishment, so that every passer-by will be desolated and appalled at the sight of all her wounds.
9I shall make people eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters; they will devour one another's flesh in the dire straits to which their enemies and those who would kill them will reduce them in the siege.
10Then you are to smash the jar before the eyes of the men who accompany you
11and say to them: These are the words of the LORD of Hosts: Thus shall I smash this people and this city as an earthen vessel is smashed beyond all repair, and the dead will be buried in Topheth until there is no room left to bury them.
12That is how I shall deal with this place and with those who live there, says the LORD: I shall make this city like Topheth.
13Because of their defilement, the houses of Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be like the site of Topheth, every one of the houses on whose roofs men have burnt sacrifices to all the host of heaven and poured drink-offerings to other gods.
14When Jeremiah came in 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:
15These are the words of the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel: I am about to bring on this city and on all its dependent towns the whole disaster with which I have threatened it, for its people have remained stubborn and refused to listen to me.