Jeremiah 19–20

19TH CHAPTER

Israel Will Be Smashed Like a Clay Jar

¹This is what the Lord says: Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests. ²Go to the valley of Ben Hinnom at the entrance to Potsherd Gate. Announce there the things I plan to do. ³Say, “Listen to the Lord’s word, you kings of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I’m going to bring such a disaster on this place that the ears of everyone who hears about it will ring. 

⁴“The people, their ancestors, and the kings of Judah have abandoned me. They have made this place unrecognizable by burning incense as an offering to other gods that they hadn’t heard of. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people. ⁵They have built worship sites to burn their children as sacrifices to Baal. I didn’t ask them or command them to do this. It never entered my mind. 

⁶“That is why the days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben Hinnom. Instead, it will be called Slaughter Valley. ⁷I will smash the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will cut them down with swords in front of their enemies and with the hands of those who want to kill them. I will give their bodies as food to birds and to animals. ⁸I will devastate this city. It will become something to hiss at. Everyone who goes by it will be stunned and hiss with contempt at all the disasters that happen to it. ⁹I will make the people eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. They will eat each other’s flesh during blockades and hardships that their enemies impose on them when they want to kill them.” 

¹⁰⸤The Lord says,⸥ “Then smash the jar in front of the men who went with you. ¹¹Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: I will smash these people and this city as this potter’s jar was smashed beyond repair. They will bury ⸤the dead⸥ in Topheth until there’s no other place to bury them. ¹²That’s what I will do to this place and to those who live in it, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. ¹³The houses in Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and all the rooftops of the houses will be unclean^alike this city Topheth. This is because people burned incense to the entire army of heaven and poured out wine offerings to other gods.’ ” 

¹⁴Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy. He stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, ¹⁵“This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I’m going to bring on this city and on all its towns the disasters that I threatened. They’ve become impossible to deal with, and they refuse to obey me.” 

20TH CHAPTER

Pashhur Imprisons Jeremiah

¹Now the priest, Immer’s son Pashhur, the chief officer of the Lord’s temple, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ²Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah and put him in prison at Upper Benjamin Gate that was in the Lord’s temple. 

³The next day when Pashhur took Jeremiah out of prison, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord doesn’t call you Pashhur, but he calls you Terror Everywhere. ⁴This is what the Lord says: I’m going to make you terrify yourself and all your friends. Their enemies’ swords will kill them, and you will see it with your own eyes. I will hand all of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take the people away as captives to Babylon or kill them with swords. ⁵I will hand all the riches of this city over to their enemies. This will include all its produce, all its valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. Their enemies will loot them, take them away, and bring them to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all those who live in your house will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and you will die there. You will be buried there together with all your friends to whom you prophesied these lies.” 

Jeremiah Prays to the Lord

⁷O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. 

You overpowered me and won. 

I’ve been made fun of all day long. 

Everyone mocks me. 

⁸Each time I speak, I have to cry out and shout, 

“Violence and destruction!” 

The Lord’s word has made me the object of insults 

and contempt all day long. 

⁹I think to myself, “I can forget the Lord 

and no longer speak his name.” 

But ⸤his word⸥ is inside me like a burning fire shut up in my bones. 

I wear myself out holding it in, but I can’t do it any longer. 

¹⁰I have heard many ⸤people⸥ whispering, 

“Terror is everywhere! 

Report him! Let’s report him!” 

All my closest friends are waiting to see me stumble. 

They say, “Maybe he will be tricked. 

Then we can overpower him and take revenge on him.” 

¹¹But the Lord is on my side like a terrifying warrior. 

That is why those who persecute me will stumble. They can’t win. 

They will be very ashamed that they can’t succeed. 

Their eternal shame will not be forgotten. 

¹²But the Lord of Armies examines the righteous. 

He sees their motives and thoughts. 

I want to see you take revenge on them, 

because I’ve brought my case to you. 

¹³Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! 

He has rescued the lives of needy people 

from the power of wicked people. 

¹⁴Cursed is the day that I was born, 

the day that my mother gave birth to me. 

May it not be blessed. 

¹⁵Cursed is the man who made my father very happy with the news 

that he had just become the father of a baby boy. 

¹⁶May that man be like the cities 

that the Lord destroyed without pity. 

May he hear a cry of alarm in the morning 

and a battle cry at noon. 

¹⁷If only he had killed me while I was in the womb. 

Then my mother would have been my grave, 

and she would have always been pregnant. 

¹⁸Why did I come out of the womb? 

All I’ve seen is trouble and grief. 

I will finish my days in shame.