Thus says Jehovah, Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests;

And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words which I will speak to you,

And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring evil upon this place, at which the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle;

Because they have forsaken Me and have estranged this place from Me and have burned incense in it to other gods, which neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent,

And they have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come up in My heart.

Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when this place will no longer be called  ¹Topheth, or the valley of the son of  ¹Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter.

And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem 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 corpses to the birds of heaven and to the beasts of the earth for food.

And I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss at all its wounds.

And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat his neighbor's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life distress them.

And you shall break the jar in the sight of the men who go with you.

And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, So I will break this people and this city in the same way as one breaks the potter's vessel so that it cannot be repaired anymore, and they will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place to bury.

Thus I will deal with this place, declares Jehovah, and with its inhabitants, so as to make this city like Topheth.

And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like the place Topheth, defiled because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.

Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Jehovah had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the house of Jehovah and said to all the people,

Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring to this city and upon all its cities all the evil that I have spoken against it because they have stiffened their neck so as not to hear My words.

Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Jehovah, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

And Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of Jehovah.

And on the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, Jehovah no longer calls your name Pashhur, but  ¹Magor-missabib.

For thus says Jehovah, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes look on; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will exile them to Babylon and strike them with the sword.

I will also give all the wealth of this city and all its gains and all its precious things; indeed all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them and capture them and bring them to Babylon.

And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity and you will go to Babylon and die there and be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied falsely.

You have enticed me, O Jehovah, and I let myself be enticed;
You have laid hold of me and have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.

For whenever I speak, I cry out;
I proclaim violence and destruction;
For the word of Jehovah has become to me
A reproach and a derision all day long.

But if I say, I will not mention Him
Or speak anymore in His name,
Then it is in my heart like a burning fire,
Shut up in my bones,
And I am weary of holding it in,
Nor can I.

For I hear the slander of many,
Terror on every side:
Denounce; yes, let us denounce him.
Every familiar friend
Is watching for my stumbling:
Perhaps he will be deceived so we can prevail against him
And take our revenge on him.

But Jehovah is with me like a mighty one who terrifies;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail;
They will be greatly ashamed, for they have not prospered,
With an eternal humiliation that will not be forgotten.

But, O Jehovah of hosts, who tries the righteous,
Who sees the inward parts and the heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them,
For I have revealed my cause to You.

Sing to Jehovah;
Praise Jehovah;
For He has delivered the soul of the poor
From the hand of the evildoers.

Cursed be the day
On which I was born;
Let not the day be blessed
On which my mother bore me.

Cursed be the man who brought good news
To my father, saying,
Causing him much joy.

And let that man be like the cities
Which Jehovah overthrew and did not repent,
And let him hear the cry in the morning
And the alarm in the noontime;

Because he did not put me to death at the womb,
That my mother might be my grave,
And her womb always pregnant.

Why is this? Did I come out from the womb / To see trouble and sorrow, / That my days may be spent in shame?

The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

Inquire for us of Jehovah, for  ¹Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps Jehovah will deal with us according to all His wonderful deeds, so that he goes up from us.

Then Jeremiah said to them, Thus you will say to Zedekiah,

Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hand and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will gather them together into the midst of this city.

I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm and in anger and wrath and great indignation.

And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence.

And afterward, declares Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah the king of Judah and his servants and the people who remain in this city after the pestilence and after the sword and after the famine into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and he will strike them with the edge of the sword and will not pity them or spare them or have compassion on them.

And to this people you shall say, Thus says Jehovah, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.

He who remains in this city will die by sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live and have his own life as spoil.

For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good, declares Jehovah; it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.

And to the house of the king of Judah say, Hear the word of Jehovah,

O house of David, thus says Jehovah:
Execute judgment every morning,
And deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My wrath go forth like fire
And burn, and there be no one to extinguish it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.

Indeed, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
O rock of the plateau, declares Jehovah,
Those who say, Who will come down against us,
And who will enter into our habitations?

But I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds,
Declares Jehovah,
And I will kindle a fire in her forest,
And it will devour all that is around her.