Jeremiah 19:8-15

19:8 I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn ¹  because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ²  19:9 I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” ³ 

19:10 The Lord continued, ⁴  “Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you. 19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ⁵  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ⁶  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ⁷  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ⁸  19:12 I, the Lord, say: ⁹  ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth. 19:13 The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies ¹⁰  just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars ¹¹  and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’”

19:14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the Lord had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the Lord’s temple and stood ¹²  in its courtyard and called out to all the people. 19:15 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹³  says, ‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it ¹⁴  all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused ¹⁵  to pay any attention to what I have said!’”

[19:8]  ¹ sn See 18:16 and the study note there.

[19:8]  ² tn Heb “all its smitings.” This word has been used several times for the metaphorical “wounds” that Israel has suffered as a result of the blows from its enemies. See, e.g., 14:17. It is used in the Hebrew Bible of scourging, both literally and metaphorically (cf. Deut 25:3; Isa 10:26), and of slaughter and defeat (1 Sam 4:10; Josh 10:20). Here it refers to the results of the crushing blows at the hands of her enemies which has made her the object of scorn.

[19:9]  ³ tn This verse has been restructured to try to bring out the proper thought and subordinations reflected in the verse without making the sentence too long and complex in English: Heb “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. And they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the straits which their enemies who are seeking their lives reduce them to.” This also shows the agency through which God’s causation was effected, i.e., the siege.

[19:10]  ⁴ tn The words “And the Lord continued” are not in the text. However, they are necessary to take us clearly back to the flow of the narrative begun in vv. 1-2 and interrupted by the long speech in vv. 3-9.

[19:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

[19:11]  ⁶ tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

[19:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

[19:11]  ⁸ sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

[19:12]  ⁹ tn This phrase (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) has been handled this way on several occasions when it occurs within first person addresses where the Lord is the speaker. See, e.g., 16:16; 17:24; 18:6.

[19:13]  ¹⁰ tn The words “by dead bodies” is not in the text but is implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the host of heaven.”

[19:14]  ¹² tn Heb “And Jeremiah entered from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to prophesy and he stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.”

[19:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[19:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all its towns.”

[19:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”