1. So says Jehovah, Go and buy a potter's earthen jar, and gather from the elders of the people, and from the elders of the priests.
2. And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom by the entry of Potsherd Gate. And there declare the Words that I will speak to you.
3. And say, Hear the Word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and those living in Jerusalem. So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring evil on this place by which all who hear it will have tingling ears.
4. Because they have forsaken Me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, 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 for burnt offerings to Baal, which I never commanded nor spoke, nor did it come into My heart.
6. So, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that this place shall be no more called Tophet, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter.
7. And I will make the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place. And I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. And I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the heavens, and for the animals of the earth.
8. And I will make this city a waste and a hissing. Everyone who passes by shall be amazed and shall hiss because of all its plagues.
9. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. And they shall each one eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life shall distress them.
10. And you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you,
11. and shall say to them, So says Jehovah of Hosts, Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks the potter's vessel that cannot be restored again. And they shall bury in Tophet, since no place is left to bury.
12. I will do this to this place, says Jehovah, and to those living in it, and give this place to be as Tophet.
13. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the roofs of the houses on which they have burned incense to all the host of the heavens, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.
14. Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where Jehovah had sent him there to prophesy. And he stood in the court of the house of Jehovah, and he said to all the people,
15. So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring to this city, and on all its towns, all the evil that I have spoken against it, because they have stiffened their necks in order not to hear My Words.