Jer 18:18-19:15 | ESV | STEP | Then they said , Come , let us make plots against Jeremiah , for the law shall not perish from the priest , nor counsel from the wise , nor the word from the prophet . Come , let us strike him with the tongue , and let us not pay attention to any of his words .

18 Then they said, ^a“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^bfor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^cCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O Lord,
and ^dlisten to the voice of my adversaries.
20 ^eShould good be repaid with evil?
Yet ^fthey have dug a pit for my life.
^gRemember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore ^hdeliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ⁱand widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 ^jMay a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For ^kthey have dug a pit to take me
^land laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet ^myou, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
ⁿForgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.

Jeremiah 19

The Broken Flask

1 Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy ^oa potter’s earthenware ^pflask, and take some of ^qthe elders of the people and some of ^rthe elders of the priests, 2 and go out ^sto the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3 You shall say, ^t‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^uO kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that ^vthe ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4 ^wBecause the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; ^xand because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 ^yand have built the high places of Baal ^zto burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, ^aawhich I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— 6 therefore, ^abbehold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or ^acthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And in this place ^adI will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, ^aeand will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. ^afI will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city ^aga horror, ^aha thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 ^aiAnd I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor ^ajin the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’

10 “Then ^akyou shall break ^althe flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, ^amas one breaks a potter’s vessel, ^anso that it can never be mended. ^aoMen shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city ^aplike Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah— ^aqall the houses on whose ^arroofs offerings have been offered ^asto all the host of heaven, and ^atdrink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled ^aulike the place of Topheth.’”

14 Then Jeremiah came from ^avTopheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, ^awand he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, ^axbecause they have stiffened their neck, ^ayrefusing to hear my words.”