The Valley of Slaughter

30 Yahweh says this: “The people of Judah have done many things that I say are evil.

They have set up their disgusting idols in my temple,

causing it to become an unacceptable place to worship me.

31 They have built altars at Topheth in Ben-Hinnom Valley outside Jerusalem,

and they sacrifice their sons and daughters on those altars.

I never commanded them to do that;

I never even thought that anyone would do that.

32 So they should beware!

There will be a time when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the Hinnom Valley;

instead, it will be called the Valley of Slaughter.

There will be a huge number of people who will be buried there,

with the result that there will be no space to bury more bodies.

33 The corpses of my people that are not buried and are left on the ground will be eaten by vultures and wild animals,

and there will be no one to shoo/chase them away.

34 There will be no one singing and laughing any more in the streets of Jerusalem;

there will be no more joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides in Judah,

because the land will be completely destroyed.”

8 Yahweh says, “At the time that your corpses are scattered on the ground,

your enemies will break open the graves of your kings and other officials who lived in Judah,

and the graves of your priests and prophets and other people who lived there.

2 They will take out their bones from their graves and dishonor them by scattering them on the ground under the sun and the moon and the stars—

those are the gods which my people loved and served and worshiped.

No one will gather up their bones and bury them again;

they will remain scattered on the ground like dung.

3 And all the people of this wicked nation who are still alive and whom I have exiled to other countries will say,

‘We would prefer to die than to continue to stay alive here in these countries.’

That will be true because I, Yahweh, have said it.”