Jeremiah 7:31

7:31 They have also built places of worship ¹  in a place called Topheth ²  in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! ³ 

Jeremiah 19:4

19:4 I will do so because these people ⁴  have rejected me and have defiled ⁵  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ⁶  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 19:2

19:2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. ⁸  Announce there what I tell you. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 21:1

The Lord Will Hand Jerusalem over to Enemies

21:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ¹⁰  when King Zedekiah ¹¹  sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. ¹²  Zedekiah sent them to Jeremiah to ask, ¹³ 

Jeremiah 24:4

24:4 The Lord said to me, ¹⁴ 

Psalms 106:37-38

106:37 They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ¹⁵ 

106:38 They shed innocent blood –

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

The land was polluted by bloodshed. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 57:5

57:5 you who practice ritual sex ¹⁷  under the oaks and every green tree,

who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 59:7

59:7 They are eager to do evil, ¹⁹ 

quick to shed innocent blood. ²⁰ 

Their thoughts are sinful;

they crush and destroy. ²¹ 

Ezekiel 16:20-21

16:20 “‘You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them ²²  as food for the idols to eat. As if your prostitution not enough, 16:21 you slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols. ²³ 

Ezekiel 20:31

20:31 When you present your sacrifices ²⁴  – when you make your sons pass through the fire – you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, ²⁵  O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! ²⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “high places.”

² tn Heb “the high places of [or in] Topheth.”

³ tn Heb “It never entered my heart.” The words “to command such a thing” do not appear in the Hebrew but are added for the sake of clarity.

⁴ tn The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.

⁵ sn Heb “have made this city foreign.” The verb here is one that is built off of the noun and adjective which relate to foreign nations. Comparison may be made to Jer 2:21 where the adjective refers to the strange, wild vine as opposed to the choice vine the Lord planted and to 5:19 and 8:19 where the noun is used of worshiping foreign gods. Israel through its false worship has “denationalized” itself in its relation to God.

⁶ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁷ tn Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.

⁸ sn The exact location of the Potsherd Gate is unknown since it is nowhere else mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It is sometimes identified with the Dung Gate mentioned in Neh 2:13; 3:13-14; 12:31 on the basis of the Jerusalem Targum. It is probably called “Potsherd Gate” because that is where the potter threw out the broken pieces of pottery which were no longer of use to him. The Valley of Ben Hinnom has already been mentioned in 7:31-32 in connection with the illicit religious practices, including child sacrifice, which took place there. The Valley of Ben Hinnom (or sometimes Valley of Hinnom) runs along the west and south sides of Jerusalem.

⁹ tn Heb “the words that I will speak to you.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”

¹¹ sn Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. He ruled from 597 b.c. when he was placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kgs 24:17) until the fall of Jerusalem in 587/6 b.c. He acquiesced to some of his anti-Babylonian counselors, rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, and sought help from the Egyptians (Ezek 17:12-15). This brought Nebuchadnezzar against the city in 588 b.c. This is the first of two delegations to Jeremiah. The later one was sent after Nebuchadnezzar withdrew to take care of the Egyptian threat (cf. Jer 37:1-9).

¹² sn The Pashhur son of Malkijah referred to here is not the same as the Pashhur referred to in 20:1-6 who was the son of Immer. This Pashhur is referred to later in 38:1. The Zephaniah referred to here was the chief of security referred to later in Jer 29:25-26. He appears to have been favorably disposed toward Jeremiah.

¹³ tn Heb “sent to him…Maaseiah, saying,….”

¹⁴ tn Heb “The word of the Lord came to me.”

¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term שֵׁדִים (shedim, “demons”) occurs only here and in Deut 32:17. Some type of lesser deity is probably in view.

¹⁶ sn Num 35:33-34 explains that bloodshed defiles a land.

¹⁷ tn Heb “inflame yourselves”; NRSV “burn with lust.” This verse alludes to the practice of ritual sex that accompanied pagan fertility rites.

¹⁸ sn This apparently alludes to the practice of child sacrifice (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

¹⁹ tn Heb “their feet run to evil.”

²⁰ tn Heb “they quickly pour out innocent blood.”

²¹ tn Heb “their thoughts are thoughts of sin, destruction and crushing [are] in their roadways.”

²² sn The sacrifice of children was prohibited in Lev 18:21; 20:2; Deut 12:31; 18:10.

²³ tn Heb “and you gave them, by passing them through to them.” Some believe this alludes to the pagan practice of making children pass through the fire.

²⁴ tn Or “gifts.”

²⁵ tn Or “Will I reveal myself to you?”

²⁶ tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”