Jeremiah 19-20
Lexham English Bible
The Valley of the Slaughter
19 Thus said Yahweh, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people, and some of the leaders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Gate of the Potsherd, and proclaim there the words that I speak to you. 3 And you shall say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “Look, I am about to bring disaster upon this place so that everyone who hears it,[a] his ears will ring. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and they have defaced this place, and they have made smoke offerings in it to other gods whom they have not known, they, nor their ancestors,[b] nor the kings of Judah, and they have filled up this place with the blood of the innocent, 5 and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire, burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I ordered not, and it did not come to my mind.[c]
6 “Therefore[d] look, days are about to come,” declares[e] Yahweh, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but[f] the Valley of the Slaughter. 7 And I will lay waste the plans[g] of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will bring them to ruin by the sword before[h] their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life, and I will give their dead bodies[i] as food to the birds[j] of heaven and to the animals[k] of the earth. 8 And I will make this city a horror, and an object of hissing, everyone who passes by it will be appalled, and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress which their enemies and those who seek their life inflict on them.”’
10 “Then you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you. 11 And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts: “So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, so that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury until there is no room to bury.[l] 12 Thus will I do to this place,” declares[m] Yahweh, “and to its inhabitants, to make this city like Topheth. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean like the place of Topheth, all the houses where they made smoke offerings upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and where they poured out libations to other gods.”’”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh and said to all the people, 15 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Look, I am about to bring to this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their neck to not hear my words.’”
A Message for Pashhur
20 Now Pashhur, the son of Immer, the priest who was officer in charge in the temple of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the temple of Yahweh. 3 And then[n] on the next day, when Pashhur brought Jeremiah out from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Yahweh will not call your name Pashhur, but[o] Terror From All Around. 4 For thus says Yahweh, ‘Look, I am making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will be seeing it.[p] And all Judah I will give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon, and he will strike them with the sword. 5 And I will give all the wealth of this city, and all its acquisitions, and all its precious items, and all of the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, and they will seize them, and they will bring them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all those who live in your house will go into captivity, and you will go to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely.[q]’”
Jeremiah’s Lament
7 You have persuaded me, O Yahweh, and I was persuaded.
You have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long.
Everyone[r] is mocking me.
8 For as often as[s] I speak,
I must cry out violence and destruction.
I must shout, for the word of Yahweh has become for me
a disgrace and derision all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not mention him
and I will no longer speak in his name,”
then it becomes in my heart like a fire burning,
locked up in my bones,
and I struggle to contain it,[t]
and I am not able.
10 For I hear the rumor of many,
“Terror is from all around, denounce him,[u]
yes, let us denounce him!”
All my close friends[v] are watchers of my stumbling,
saying, “perhaps he can be persuaded,
and we can prevail over him,
and we can take our revenge on him.”
11 But Yahweh is with me like a powerful warrior.
Therefore[w] my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail.
They will be very ashamed, for they will not achieve success.
Their everlasting insult[x] will not be forgotten.
12 Yet, O Yahweh of hosts, who tests the righteous,
who sees the heart[y] and the mind,[z]
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have revealed my legal case.
13 Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh,
for he has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day on which I was born,
let not the day on which my mother gave birth to me be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
saying,[aa] “A child is born to you, a son!”
and he made him very glad.
16 And let that man be like the cities
that Yahweh demolished without regret,
and let him hear a cry for help in the morning,
and an alarm at the time of noon.
17 Because he did not kill me in the womb,
so that my mother would have been for me my grave,
and her womb would be pregnant forever.
18 Why[ab] did I come out from the womb,
to see toil, and sorrow, and to end my days in shame?[ac]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 19:3 Literally “all hears it”
- Jeremiah 19:4 Or “fathers”
- Jeremiah 19:5 Literally “heart”
- Jeremiah 19:6 Literally “To thus”
- Jeremiah 19:6 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 19:6 Literally “surely if”
- Jeremiah 19:7 Hebrew “plan”
- Jeremiah 19:7 Literally “to the face of”
- Jeremiah 19:7 Hebrew “dead body”
- Jeremiah 19:7 Hebrew “bird”
- Jeremiah 19:7 Hebrew “animal”
- Jeremiah 19:11 Literally “from there is no place to bury”
- Jeremiah 19:12 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 20:3 Literally “And it was”
- Jeremiah 20:3 Literally “but if”
- Jeremiah 20:4 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 20:6 Literally “in the lie”
- Jeremiah 20:7 Literally “All of him”
- Jeremiah 20:8 Literally “from enough”
- Jeremiah 20:9 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 20:10 Here the direct object is supplied from context in the English translation
- Jeremiah 20:10 Literally “All the human being of my peace”
- Jeremiah 20:11 Literally “Unto thus”
- Jeremiah 20:11 Literally “insult of eternity”
- Jeremiah 20:12 Literally “kidneys”
- Jeremiah 20:12 Literally “heart”
- Jeremiah 20:15 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 20:18 Literally “To what this”
- Jeremiah 20:18 Literally “my days will come to an end in shame”
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