Study Desk

Thus said Yahweh, Go and buy a potters earthen bottle, - and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

Then shalt thou go forth into the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is at the opening of the gate of potsherds; and proclaim there the words which I shall speak unto thee;

and shalt say, - Hear ye the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah And inhabitants of Jerusalem, - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts - God of Israel Behold me! bringing in calamity upon this place, which shall cause the ears of every one that heareth it, to tingle:

Because they have forsaken me, And have treated this as a foreign place, And have burned incense therein to other gods, which neither they, nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah, have known; And have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

And have built the high places of Baal for burning up their sons in the fire as ascending-sacrifices to Baal, - Which I commanded not, Nor spake, Neither came it up on my heart,

Therefore, lo! days coming, Declareth Yahweh, When this place shall be called no longer The Topheth, or The Valley of Ben-hinnom, - but - The Valley of Slaughter;

And I will pour out 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 them who seek their life, -

And I will give their dead bodies for food, to the bird of the heavens and to the beast of the earth; And I will make this city a desolation and a hissing, - every one that passeth by it, shall be astonished and hiss over all her wounds;

And I will suffer them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, yea every one - the flesh of his friend, will they eat, - in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith, their enemies, and they who seek their lives, will straiten them.

Then shalt thou break the bottle, before the eyes of the men who are walking with thee;

and shalt say unto them - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts - Thus and thus, will I break this people, and this city, As one breaketh the vessel of a potter, which cannot be made whole any more, - And in Topheth, shall they bury, for want of place to bury.

Thus, will I do to this place Declareth Yahweh, And to the inhabitants thereof, - Even making this city like Topheth:

Yea, the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall like the place of Topheth, be places defiled, - even all the houses upon whose roofs they burned incense to all the host of the heavens, and poured out drink-offerings to other gods.