THE VALLEY OF SLAUGHTER

Jeremiah 19:1-15 / Keywords 19:6

So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

 

19:1 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 4 For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. 6 So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

7 “‘In this place I will ruin[a] the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals. 8 I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. 9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’

10 “Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 12 This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’”

14 Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, 15 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’”

Footnotes

a. Jeremiah 19:7 The Hebrew for ruin sounds like the Hebrew for jar (see verses 1 and 10).

1. The Lord told Jeremiah to buy a clay jar and to take it, along with some of the elders of the people, to the Valley of Ben Hinnom. This was the place where some of the kings of Judah had practiced child sacrifice. There, Jeremiah was to proclaim disaster for Judah and Jerusalem. For the people of Judah and Jerusalem had forsaken the Lord. They had burned incense to other gods. Worst of all, they had shed the blood of innocent victims, even slaughtering children to appease foreign gods like Baal.

 

2. The Lord would judge them by giving them over to their enemies in that very place. The people of Judah and Jerusalem would be slaughtered. Their bodies would end up as food for the birds and wild animals. The city of Jerusalem would become a place of horror and scorn to the other nations. The siege their enemies would put them under would last so long the people of Jerusalem would engage in cannibalism to survive. The Lord’s judgment on sin is truly a horrible thing!

 

3. After the warning given to the elders of the city, the Lord instructed Jeremiah to break the clay jar as symbolism for what would happen to the city. Then, Jeremiah returned to the city and warned the people of the impending disaster.

 

Prayer Father, you are the Lord who judges the sin of the world. Help us to repent and turn to you.

One Word God will punish sin