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¹ 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;² 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;³ 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:⁴ 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;⁵ 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,⁶ 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;⁷ 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, - ⁸ 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;⁹ 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.

¹⁰ Then shalt thou break the bottle, before the eyes of the men who are walking with thee;¹¹ 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.¹² Thus, will I do to this place Declareth Yahweh, And to the inhabitants thereof, - Even making this city like Topheth:¹³ 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.¹⁴ Then entered Jeremiah out of Topheth, whither Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, - and stood in the court of the house of Yahweh, and said unto all the people:¹⁵ Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, Behold me! brining in against this city, and upon all the cities thereof, The whole calamity which I have pronounced against her, - Because they stiffened their neck, that they might not hear my words.