Jeremiah 19
The Lesson from the
Broken Vessel |
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Thus saith the LORD,
Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the
ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the
priests;
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and go forth unto the valley of the son
of Hinnom, 2 Kgs. 23.10 · Jer. 7.30-32 ; 32.34, 35 which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the
words that I shall tell thee:
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and say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which
whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
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Because they have forsaken me, and have
estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods,
whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of
Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of
innocents;
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they have built also the high places of
Ba'al, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto
Ba'al, Lev. 18.21 which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
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therefore, behold, the days come, saith
the LORD, that this place shall no more be
called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley
of slaughter.
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And I will make void the counsel of Judah
and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the
sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their
lives: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of
the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
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And I will make this city desolate, and a
hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and
hiss, because of all the plagues thereof.
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And I will cause them to eat the flesh of
their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat
every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness,
wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall
straiten them.
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Then shalt thou break the bottle in the
sight of the men that go with thee,
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and shalt say unto them, Thus saith the
LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people
and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot
be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
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Thus will I do unto this place, saith the
LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
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and the houses of Jerusalem, and the
houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of
Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned
incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink
offerings unto other gods.
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Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither
the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood
in the court of the LORD's house, and said to
all the people,
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Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and
upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it,
because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my
words.
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