1 ¶ The LORD said, Go and buy a potter’s clay bottle, and take some of the elders of the people, and some of the older priests;

2 And go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the east gate, and there proclaim the words that I will tell you,

3 Say, Listen to the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says; Behold, I will bring such a disaster on this place, that the ears of whoever hears of it will tingle.

4 Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place, by burning incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

5 They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I have not commanded, or mentioned, nor did it enter my mind:

6 Therefore, know this, the day is coming, says the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Tophet, or The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

7 And in this place I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem; and I will cause them to fall before their enemies, by the sword and by the hands of those who seek their lives: and I will give their bodies as food to the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth.

8 And I will make this city desolate, and an object of scorn; every one who passes by will be horrified and hiss because of all it has suffered.

9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will each eat the flesh of a friend, when their enemies, and those who want to kill them, besiege and distress them.

10 ¶ Then smash the bottle as the men who have gone with you watch,

11 And say to them, The LORD of hosts says; In the same way I will break these people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that cannot be repaired: and they will bury them in Tophet, until there is no place left to bury.

12 That is what I will do to this place, says the LORD, and to those who live here, to make this city like Tophet:

13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the palaces of the kings of Judah, will be defiled like this place Tophet, because of all the homes upon whose roofs people burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.

14 Then Jeremiah returned from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,

15 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says; Know, that I will bring upon this city and all its towns all the calamity that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words.