Thomson(i)
1 Then the Lord said to me, Go and get a pitcher of earthen ware and thou shalt take out some of the elders of the people and of the priests
2 and go out to the common grave yard which is at the entrance of the gate Charseith and read there all these words which I shall speak to thee
3 and thou shalt say to them, "Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings of Juda and ye men of Juda and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye who enter in at these gates. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold I am bringing evils upon this place, so that the ears of every one who heareth them shall tingle.
4 Because they have forsaken me and profaned this place; and have burned incense in it to strange gods, which neither they nor their fathers knew; and the kings of Juda have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 and have built high places to Baal to burn their sons with fire, things which I never commanded, and which never came into my mind;
6 therefore behold the days are coming, saith the Lord, When this place shall no more be called, "The end of hope," and "The grave yard of the sons of Ennom;" but "The grave yard of slaughter."
7 For I will slaughter the council of Juda and the council of Jerusalem in this place; And cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them who seek their lives. And I will give their carcasses to be meat for the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth,
8 and make this city a desolation and an object of pity. Every one who passeth by it shall be sad and express the sound of pity for the stroke which it hath received.
9 They shall indeed eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat, every one, the flesh of his neighbour, in the blockade and siege with which their enemies shall besiege them."
10 Then thou shalt break the pitcher before the eyes of the men who went out with thee
11 and say, Thus saith the Lord, So will I break this people and this city: as this earthen pitcher is broken and cannot be mended,
12 so will I do, saith the Lord, to this place and to the inhabitants thereof, that this city may be dashed down like that hopeless vessel.
13 And the houses of the kings of Juda shall be like this hopeless place, because of their impurities in all the houses on the tops of which they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out libations to strange gods.
14 Now when Jeremias returned from the grave yard whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he stood up in the court of the house of the Lord and said to all the people, Thus saith the Lord,
15 Behold I am bringing upon this city and upon all the cities belonging to it and upon all the villages thereof all the evils which I have denounced against it, because they have hardened their necks so as not to hearken to my commandments.