The Broken Jar
The LORD commands Jeremiah to buy a clay jar, take elders of the people and priests, and go to the Valley of Ben-hinnom near the Potsherd Gate. There he must announce disaster because Judah has abandoned the LORD, filled the place with innocent blood, and burned children to Baal in a way God never commanded.
T1his is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests, 2and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. 3Proclaim there the words I speak to you, saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of all who hear of it will ring, 4because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in this place to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have ever known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal — something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.
The LORD declares that Topheth will become the Valley of Slaughter, where Judah's plans will fail and its people will fall by the sword. Jerusalem will become a horror and an object of scorn, and the siege will become so severe that the people will consume one another's flesh.
6So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. 8I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds. 9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
Jeremiah is told to shatter the jar before the witnesses and declare that the nation and city will be shattered the same way, beyond repair. Topheth will overflow with burials, and Jerusalem's houses, even royal ones, will become as defiled as that valley because of rooftop idolatry and drink offerings to other gods.
10Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you, 11and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them. 12This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. 13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth— all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”
After returning from Topheth, Jeremiah stands in the courtyard of the LORD's house and publicly announces that the same disaster will fall on Jerusalem and its surrounding towns. The reason remains the same: they have stiffened their necks and refused to heed the LORD's words.
14Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the LORD and proclaimed to all the people, 15“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and on all the villages around it every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”