The Sign of the Broken Flask
1 Thus says theLord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, andtakesome of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests.
2 And go out tothe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, whichisby the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you,
3 and say, ‘Hear the word of theLord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says theLordof hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears willtingle.
4 “Because theyhave forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place withthe blood of the innocents
5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fireforburnt offerings to Baal,which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind),
6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says theLord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet orthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7 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 hands of those who seek their lives; theircorpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.
8 I will make this citydesolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
9 And I will cause them to eat theflesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’
10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
11 and say to them, ‘Thus says theLordof hosts:“Even so I will break this people and this city, asonebreaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shallburythemin Tophet tillthereisno place to bury.
12 Thus I will do to this place,” says theLord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet.
13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiledlike the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whoseroofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, andpoured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where theLordhad sent him to prophesy; and he stood inthe court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people,
15 “Thus says theLordof hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, becausethey have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”