Jeremiah 19
The full text of Jeremiah 19 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 This is what the LORD said: "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests,
2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance to the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you,
3 and say: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and you people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
4 For they have forsaken me and profaned this place by burning incense here to other gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew; 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 this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7 "In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who seek their lives. I will give their corpses as food to the birds and the animals.
8 I will make this city a horror and an object of scorn; all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss because of all its wounds.
9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters; they will eat one another's flesh during the siege imposed by the enemies who seek their lives.
10 "Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching,
11 and say to them: This is what the LORD of hosts says — I will smash this people and this city just as one smashes a potter's jar so that it 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 of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like Topheth — all the houses where they burned incense on their rooftops to the whole host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods."
14 Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the LORD's house and said to all the people:
15 "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring on this city and on all the towns around it every disaster I pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks and would not listen to my words."
Translation notes (9)
- Jeremiah 19:2a The Hebrew phrase gêʾ ben-hinnōm is Gehenna, which was the site of child sacrifice to Molech (compare Jeremiah 7:31-32). The Potsherd Gate was a gate located near the pottery dump.
- Jeremiah 19:3a Heb. wᵉtᵉṣillênāh 'oznāyw — 'his ears will ring/tingle'; the phrase for news so shocking it causes a physical sensation (cf. 1 Sam 3:11; 2 Kgs 21:12).
- Jeremiah 19:5a The Hebrew phrase wᵉlōʾ-ʿālāh ʿal-libbî means 'it did not rise upon my heart'; this is an emphatic triple denial, meaning God did not command, speak of, or even think of child sacrifice.
- Jeremiah 19:6a The Hebrew word tōpet possibly comes from 'fireplace or hearth' or from the Aramaic word for 'shame'; it was later renamed gêʾ haharagāh, meaning 'valley of the slaughter'.
- Jeremiah 19:7a The Hebrew word wᵉbaqōtî means 'I will empty out or pour out'; this is a pun that plays on buq̄buq̄, the clay jar, connecting the jar-smashing to the emptying of Judah's plans.
- Jeremiah 19:9a Heb. cannibalism in siege = covenant curse (Deut 28:53-57; Lev 26:29). Attested historically during the siege of Jerusalem (Lam 4:10).
- Jeremiah 19:11a The Hebrew phrase 'ăšer lōʾ yûkal lᵉhērāpēʾ means "that cannot be healed or repaired." This emphasizes the irreversible nature of the judgment, as a fired clay jar cannot be remade, unlike the clay on the wheel mentioned in chapter 18.
- Jeremiah 19:13a Heb. ṣᵉbāʾ haššāmayim — 'host of heaven'; astral worship practiced on rooftops (cf. 2 Kgs 23:12; Zeph 1:5). Each house defiled individually.
- Jeremiah 19:15a Heb. hiqšû 'et-'ōrpām — 'they stiffened their neck'; the same phrase used of the Exodus generation (cf. Deut 9:6, 13) now applied to Judah.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Jeremiah, is free to read here on the web.
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