Self-interpreting Bible

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Jeremiah 19

Under the type of breaking a potter's vessel is foreshewed the desolation of the Jews for their sins.


1 THUS saith the LORD, Go and get aa potter's earthen bottle, and take of bthe *ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

2 And go forth unto cthe valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of 1the east gate, and dproclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,

3 And say, eHear ye the word of the LORD, fO kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; gBehold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

4 hBecause they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, iwhom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, jand have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, kwhich I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

6 lTherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called mTophet, nor nThe valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

7 And oI will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and pI will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their qcarcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

8 And rI will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

9 And I will cause them to eat the sflesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and *straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

10 Then tshalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; uEven so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot 2be made whole again: and they shall vbury them in Tophet, till there be wno place to bury.

12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city xas 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 houses yupon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood zin the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,

15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, aI will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, bthat they might not hear my words.