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| 1 Thus saith Jehovah: Go and buy a potter's earthen flagon, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; |
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| 2 and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the pottery-gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, |
Hinnom – Gehenna. Evil spirits led the people of Canaan to establish the valley of Hinnom as a place of torture. R3069:1
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| 3 and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle; |
I will bring evil – Calamity. R1226:2
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| 4 because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place from me, 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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| 5 and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire as burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it up into my mind: |
High places of Baal – Corrupting the Israelites by contact with them. D24
Into my mind – The doctrine of everlasting torture is contrary to every element of God's character. R5326:6
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| 6 therefore behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. |
Hinnom – Or Gehenna, a type of the real Gehenna, or lake of fire, unquenchable till its work is done. R1449:5*
In Greek, Gehenna, Second Death. R3069:1
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| 7 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 hand of them that seek their life, and their carcases will I give as food to the fowl of the heavens and to the beasts of the earth. |
Carcases – No torture was permitted; not the living, but the dead, were consumed in Gehenna. R3069:1
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| 8 And I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing; every one that passeth by shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. |
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| 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the straitness wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. |
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| 10 And thou shalt break the flagon in the sight of the men that go with thee, |
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| 11 and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah 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 in Topheth, till there be no place to bury. |
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| 12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof, and make this city as Topheth. |
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| 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be as the place of Topheth, defiled, all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of the heavens, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods. |
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| 14 And Jeremiah came from Topheth, whither Jehovah had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Jehovah's house, and said to all the people, |
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| 15 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her cities all the evil that I have spoken against it; for they have hardened their necks, not to hear my words. |
Hardened their necks – A figure taken from the stiffness of neck of an unruly yoke of bullocks. R3464:1
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