New Living Translation | International Standard Version |
1This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a clay jar. Then ask some of the leaders of the people and of the priests to follow you. | 1This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a potter's clay jug. Take along some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. |
2Go out through the Gate of Broken Pots to the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and give them this message. | 2Go out to the Valley of Hinnom at the entrance to the Potsherd Gate, and there proclaim the words that I'm telling you. |
3Say to them, ‘Listen to this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will bring a terrible disaster on this place, and the ears of those who hear about it will ring! | 3"You are to say, 'Hear this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem! "'This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I'm about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of all who hear about it tingle. |
4“‘For Israel has forsaken me and turned this valley into a place of wickedness. The people burn incense to foreign gods—idols never before acknowledged by this generation, by their ancestors, or by the kings of Judah. And they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children. | 4For they have forsaken me and have treated this place as foreign. In it they have burned incense to other gods that neither they, their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah knew. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocent people. |
5They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! | 5They built the high places for Baal to burn their children in the fire as a burnt offering to Baal—something I didn't command, didn't say, nor did it ever enter my mind! |
6So beware, for the time is coming, says the LORD, when this garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. | 6"'"Therefore, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. |
7“‘For I will upset the careful plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will allow the people to be slaughtered by invading armies, and I will leave their dead bodies as food for the vultures and wild animals. | 7I'll shatter the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I'll make them fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hands of those seeking their lives. I'll give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the land. |
8I will reduce Jerusalem to ruins, making it a monument to their stupidity. All who pass by will be astonished and will gasp at the destruction they see there. | 8I'll make this city into a desolate place and an object of scorn. All who pass by it will be astonished and will scoff because of all its wounds. |
9I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all the food is gone. Then those trapped inside will eat their own sons and daughters and friends. They will be driven to utter despair.’ | 9I'll cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and people will eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress to which their enemies and those seeking their lives will subject them."'" |
10“As these men watch you, Jeremiah, smash the jar you brought. | 10"Then you are to break the jug in front of the men who have come with you, |
11Then say to them, ‘This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: As this jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of Judah and Jerusalem beyond all hope of repair. They will bury the bodies here in Topheth, the garbage dump, until there is no more room for them. | 11and say to them, 'This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "In this same way I'll break this people and this city, just as someone breaks a potter's vessel which he then cannot put back together again. They'll bury corpses in Topheth until there is no more room to bury anyone. |
12This is what I will do to this place and its people, says the LORD. I will cause this city to become defiled like Topheth. | 12This is what I'll do to this place and its residents," declares the LORD, "making this city like Topheth. |
13Yes, all the houses in Jerusalem, including the palace of Judah’s kings, will become like Topheth—all the houses where you burned incense on the rooftops to your star gods, and where liquid offerings were poured out to your idols.’” | 13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be polluted like Topheth, as will be all the houses on whose roofs people burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out liquid offerings to other gods."'" |
14Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, the garbage dump where he had delivered this message, and he stopped in front of the Temple of the LORD. He said to the people there, | 14Then Jeremiah went from Topheth where the LORD had sent him to prophesy. He stood in the courtyard of the LORD's Temple, saying to all the people, |
15“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will bring disaster upon this city and its surrounding towns as I promised, because you have stubbornly refused to listen to me.’” | 15"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: 'I'm about to bring on this city and all its towns all the disaster that I declared against it because they were determined not to obey my message.'" |
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. |
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