3-5 “Say, ‘Listen to God’s Word, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem! This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel. I’m about to bring doom crashing down on this place. Oh, and will ears ever ring! Doom—because they’ve walked off and left me, and made this place strange by worshiping strange gods, gods never heard of by them, their parents, or the old kings of Judah. Doom—because they have massacred innocent people. Doom—because they’ve built altars to that no-god Baal, and burned their own children alive in the fire as offerings to Baal, an atrocity I never ordered, never so much as hinted at!

6-9 “‘And so it’s payday, and soon’—God’s Decree!—‘this place will no longer be known as Topheth or Valley of Ben-hinnom, but Massacre Meadows. I’m canceling all the plans Judah and Jerusalem had for this place, and I’ll have them killed by their enemies. I’ll stack their dead bodies to be eaten by carrion crows and wild dogs. I’ll turn this city into such a museum of atrocities that anyone coming near will be shocked speechless by the savage brutality. The people will turn into cannibals. Dehumanized by the pressure of the enemy siege, they’ll eat their own children! Yes, they’ll eat one another, family and friends alike.’

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For they have forsaken(A) me and made this a place of foreign gods(B); they have burned incense(C) in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.(D) They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children(E) in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.(F) So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth(G) or the Valley of Ben Hinnom,(H) but the Valley of Slaughter.(I)

“‘In this place I will ruin[a] the plans(J) of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies,(K) at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses(L) as food(M) to the birds and the wild animals. I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn;(N) all who pass by will be appalled(O) and will scoff because of all its wounds.(P) I will make them eat(Q) the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies(R) will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 19:7 The Hebrew for ruin sounds like the Hebrew for jar (see verses 1 and 10).

3-5 “Say, ‘Listen to God’s Word, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem! This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel. I’m about to bring doom crashing down on this place. Oh, and will ears ever ring! Doom—because they’ve walked off and left me, and made this place strange by worshiping strange gods, gods never heard of by them, their parents, or the old kings of Judah. Doom—because they have massacred innocent people. Doom—because they’ve built altars to that no-god Baal, and burned their own children alive in the fire as offerings to Baal, an atrocity I never ordered, never so much as hinted at!

6-9 “‘And so it’s payday, and soon’—God’s Decree!—‘this place will no longer be known as Topheth or Valley of Ben-hinnom, but Massacre Meadows. I’m canceling all the plans Judah and Jerusalem had for this place, and I’ll have them killed by their enemies. I’ll stack their dead bodies to be eaten by carrion crows and wild dogs. I’ll turn this city into such a museum of atrocities that anyone coming near will be shocked speechless by the savage brutality. The people will turn into cannibals. Dehumanized by the pressure of the enemy siege, they’ll eat their own children! Yes, they’ll eat one another, family and friends alike.’

Read full chapter

For they have forsaken(A) me and made this a place of foreign gods(B); they have burned incense(C) in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.(D) They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children(E) in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.(F) So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth(G) or the Valley of Ben Hinnom,(H) but the Valley of Slaughter.(I)

Read full chapter