19 Then Yahweh said this:

⇔Take some of the elders and some of the priests,

and go and buy a clay flask from the potter.

2 Then go out to the Ben-Hinom valley[ref] by the Broken Pottery gate,

and then declare the words that I’ll tell you there.

3 Tell them:

You kings of Yehudah (Judah) and you residents of Yerushalem (Jerusalem),

listen to Yahweh’s message.

Yisrael’s (Israel’s) god, Commander-in-chief Yahweh says,

Listen, I’m about to send calamity to this place,

and the ears of everyone who hears about it will tingle.

4 I’m doing that because they’ve abandoned me and defiled this place—

they’ve burnt incense to other ‘gods’,

that neither they or their ancestors or Yehudah’s kings used to know.

Then they’ve filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

5 They built hilltop shrines to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Ba’al,

something I never instructed or talked about, nor did it even enter my mind.[ref]

6 So Yahweh declares that the time is coming when this place will no longer be called Tofet or the Ben-Hinom valley, but rather, the ‘Slaughter Valley’. 7 Then I’ll confound Yehudah and Yerushalem’s (Jerusalem’s) plans in this place, and I’ll have them struck down by their enemies’ swords and by those who want to kill them, and I’ll give their dead bodies to the birds and the wild animals for food. 8 Then I’ll make that city into a wasteland that’s something to scoff at—everyone who passes by will be appalled and will mock it because of all its disasters. 9 I’ll cause them to eat the flesh of their children and of their neighbours during the distress caused by the siege imposed by the enemies who want to kill them.

10 ⇔Then as the men who went with you watch, you must break that pottery flask 11 and tell them that Commander-in_chief Yahweh says this:

I’ll shatter this nation and this city, just like someone shatters a piece of pottery that can never be repaired again. They’ll bury the dead in Tofet until they run out of room. 12 Yahweh declares that I’ll do that to this place and its residents—making this city like Tofet 13 and Yerushalem’s houses including the houses of Yehudah’s kings will be defiled like that place, Tofet—all the houses on whose rooftops they burnt incense to all the constellations and poured out drink offerings to other ‘gods’.

14 Then Yirmiyah (Jeremiah) returned from Tofet where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the temple courtyard and declared to all the people, 15 “This is what Yisrael’s (Israel’s) god, Commander-in-chief Yahweh, says: ‘Listen, every disaster that I’ve pronounced against these people, I’m about to send to this city and to all the villages around it, because they’ve been stubborn and failed to take notice of my messages.’ ”