Add parallel Print Page Options

31 (A) At Topheth in Hinnom Valley you have built altars where you kill your children and burn them as sacrifices to other gods. I would never think of telling you to do this.

Read full chapter

31 They have built the high places of Topheth(A) in the Valley of Ben Hinnom(B) to burn their sons and daughters(C) in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.(D)

Read full chapter

Jeremiah and the Clay Jar

19 The Lord said:

Jeremiah, go to the pottery shop and buy a clay jar. Then take along some of the city officials and leading priests (A) and go to Hinnom Valley, just outside Potsherd[a] Gate. Tell the people that I have said:

I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, and you kings of Judah and you people of Jerusalem had better pay attention. I am going to bring so much trouble on this valley that everyone who hears about it will be shocked. 4-5 (B) The people of Judah stopped worshiping me and made this valley into a place of worship for Baal and other gods that have never helped them or their ancestors or their kings. And they have committed murder here, burning their young, innocent children as sacrifices to Baal. I have never even thought of telling you to do that. So watch out! Someday this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. It will be called Slaughter Valley!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 19.2 Potsherd: A piece of broken pottery.

19 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter.(A) Take along some of the elders(B) of the people and of the priests and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom,(C) near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings(D) 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(E) on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.(F) For they have forsaken(G) me and made this a place of foreign gods(H); they have burned incense(I) 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.(J) They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children(K) in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.(L) So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth(M) or the Valley of Ben Hinnom,(N) but the Valley of Slaughter.(O)

Read full chapter

35 (A) And they led Judah into sin by building places to worship Baal in Hinnom Valley, where they also sacrificed their sons and daughters to the god Molech. I have never even imagined they would commit such disgusting sins.

Read full chapter

35 They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom(A) to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molek,(B) though I never commanded—nor did it enter my mind(C)—that they should do such a detestable(D) thing and so make Judah sin.(E)

Read full chapter

21 (A) Don't sacrifice your children on the altar fires to the god Molech. I am the Lord your God, and that would disgrace me.

Read full chapter