“"Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth."”
Jeremiah 19:12
Summary
In Jeremiah chapter 19, God instructs the prophet Jeremiah to purchase a potter's earthenware flask and take some of the elders and priests to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. There, Jeremiah is to proclaim a message of impending disaster because of the people's idolatry and child sacrifices, which defiled the land. Symbolically, Jeremiah is to break the flask as a sign that God will shatter the nation as one shatters a pot, beyond repair. The chapter emphasizes the gravity of Judah's sins, particularly their worship of foreign deities and the innocent bloodshed which have provoked the Lord's wrath. This act in the valley represents the unavoidable divine judgment due to their covenant unfaithfulness.