Broken Jar, Broken City
Jeremiah 19, verse 1. Then the Lord said to me, “Go and obtain an earthen-baked wine-jar, and you shall lead some of the elders of the people and some of their elder priests Jeremiah 19, verse 2. out to the graveyard of the sons of their children, by the entry of the Gate of Charsith. There you shall read all the words I will speak to you. Jeremiah 19, verse 3. You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings and men of Judah, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and all entering by these gates. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I bring calamities upon this place, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will ring. Jeremiah 19, verse 4. “Because they forsook Me, and alienated this place, and offered incense in it to foreign gods, which neither they nor their fathers knew, and because the kings of Judah filled this place with the blood of the innocent Jeremiah 19, verse 5. and built high places for Baal so as to burn up their sons in the fire, which things I did not command or speak, nor consider in My heart. Jeremiah 19, verse 6. Therefore behold, days are coming,” says the Lord, “when this place shall no longer be called the Fall, or the Graveyard of the Son of Hinnom, but the Graveyard of Slaughter. Jeremiah 19, verse 7. For I shall destroy the counsel of Judah and the counsel of Jerusalem in this place. I shall cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives. I will give their dead as food for the birds of heaven and for the wild animals of the earth. Jeremiah 19, verse 8. I will appoint this city for desolation and for hissing. Everyone passing by it will scowl and hiss because of all her misfortune. Jeremiah 19, verse 9. They shall eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and each shall eat the flesh of those in the passage who are his neighbors in the blockade, and in the siege in which their enemies shall besiege them.’” Jeremiah 19, verse 10. “Then you shall break the wine-jar in the sight of the men who come out with you, Jeremiah 19, verse 11. and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In this way I will break this people and this city, as one breaks an earthen vessel which cannot be made whole again. Jeremiah 19, verse 12. Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to those who dwell in it, so this city may be given as one that crumbles in pieces. Jeremiah 19, verse 13. Therefore the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be as a place that crumbles because of the uncleanness in all their houses, where they burnt incense upon their housetops to all the host of heaven and poured drink offerings to foreign gods.”’” Jeremiah 19, verse 14. Then Jeremiah came from the place of the Fall, where the Lord sent him to prophesy. He stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people, Jeremiah 19, verse 15. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I bring upon this city, and on all the cities and villages belonging to it, all the calamities I declared against it, because they hardened their neck so as not to obey My words.’”