⁹ Take some large stones in your hands, and bury them in the clay pavement^[a] that is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes. Let the Judeans see you do it,

⁶³ When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it, and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,^{(A) 64} and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disasters that I am bringing on her.’ ”^[a]

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.^(B)

The Broken Earthenware Jug

19 Thus said the Lord: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with you^[a] some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, ² and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.^{(A) 3} You shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.^{(B) 4} Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent^{(C) 5} and gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind,^{(D) 6} therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of Slaughter.^{(E) 7} And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem and will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth.^{(F) 8} And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.^{(G) 9} And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and all shall eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.^(H)

¹⁰ Then you shall break the jug in the sight of those who go with you ¹¹ and shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. In Topheth they shall bury until there is no more room to bury.^{(I) 12} Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. ¹³ And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth—all the houses upon whose roofs offerings have been made to the whole host of heaven and libations have been poured out to other gods.^(J)

¹⁴ When Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people:^{(K) 15} Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am now bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words.^(L)

² “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”^{(A) 3} So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴ The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶ Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.^{(B) 7} At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸ but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.^{(C) 9} And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,^{(D) 10} but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.^{(E) 11} Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.^(F)

Israel’s Stubborn Idolatry

¹² But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.”^(G)

²¹ Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,

¹¹ He came to us and took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and will hand him over to the gentiles.’ ”^(A)

³ for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, mortal, prepare for yourself an exile’s baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight; you shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.^{(A) 4} You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage for exile, and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight, as those do who go into exile.^{(B) 5} Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry the baggage through it. ⁶ In their sight you shall lift the baggage on your shoulder and carry it out in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you may not see the land, for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.^(C)

⁷ I did just as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands; I brought it out in the dark, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight.

⁸ In the morning the word of the Lord came to me: ⁹ Mortal, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, “What are you doing?”^{(D) 10} Say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: This oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem^[a] and all the house of Israel in it.”^{[b](E) 11} Say, “I am a sign for you: as I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall go into exile, into captivity.”^{(F) 12} And the prince who is among them shall lift his baggage on his shoulder in the dark and shall go out; he^[c] shall dig through the wall and carry it through; he shall cover his face so that he may not see the land with his eyes.^{(G) 13} I will spread my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it, and he shall die there.^{(H) 14} I will scatter to every wind all who are around him, his helpers and all his troops, and I will unsheathe the sword behind them.^{(I) 15} And they shall know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries.^{(J) 16} But I will let a few of them escape from the sword, from famine and pestilence, so that they may tell of all their abominations among the nations where they go; then they shall know that I am the Lord.^(K)