Hæc dicit Dominus: Vade, et accipe lagunculam figuli testeam a senioribus populi et a senioribus sacerdotum,

Up, the Lord said to me, and get thee a jar of earthenware;

Thus saith the Lord: Go, and take a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests:

et egredere ad vallem filii Ennom, quæ est juxta introitum portæ fictilis: et prædicabis ibi verba quæ ego loquar ad te.

take it to the valley of Ben-Ennom, close to the Earthenware Gate, with elders of the people and some of the older priests for thy company; there prophesy as I bid thee.

And go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the entry of the earthen gate: and there thou shalt proclaim the words that I shall tell thee.

Et dices: Audite verbum Domini, reges Juda, et habitatores Jerusalem. Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum, Deus Israël: Ecce ego inducam afflictionem super locum istum, ita ut omnis qui audierit illam, tinniant aures ejus,

To the dynasty of Juda, to all the citizens of Jerusalem, give this message from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I mean to bring such calamity on this place, as shall ring in the ears of all that hear it.

And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O ye kings of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring an affliction upon this place: so that whosoever shall hear it, his ears shall tingle:

eo quod dereliquerint me, et alienum fecerint locum istum, et libaverunt in eo diis alienis quos nescierunt, ipsi et patres eorum, et reges Juda: et repleverunt locum istum sanguine innocentum,

The place that once was mine, now alienated by the rebels that dwell there; to alien gods they never knew, no fathers of theirs, no kings of Juda ever knew, they have done sacrifice in this place, drenching it with the blood of the innocent.

Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place: and have sacrificed therein to strange gods, whom neither they nor their fathers knew, nor the kings of Juda: and they have filled this place with the blood of innocents.

et ædificaverunt excelsa Baalim, ad comburendos filios suos igni in holocaustum Baalim: quæ non præcepi, nec locutus sum, nec ascenderunt in cor meum.

Here the gods of the country-side must have their hill-shrines, and children must be burnt as a sacrifice in their honour; a rite not of my prescribing, or enjoining, or imagining.

And they have built the high places of Baalim, to burn their children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim: which I did not command, nor speak of, neither did it once come into my mind.

Propterea ecce dies veniunt, dicit Dominus, et non vocabitur amplius locus iste Topheth, et vallis filii Ennom, sed vallis occisionis.

And now, the Lord says, a time is coming when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-Ennom; it will be called the Valley of the Slain.

Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom, but the valley of slaughter.

Et dissipabo consilium Juda et Jerusalem in loco isto, et subvertam eos gladio in conspectu inimicorum suorum, et in manu quærentium animas eorum: et dabo cadavera eorum escam volatilibus cæli et bestiis terræ.

In this valley all the hopes of Juda and Jerusalem shall be poured away; at the sword’s point they shall meet their enemy and fall into pitiless hands, and I will give leave to bird in air, beast on earth, to prey on the carrion of them.

And I will defeat the counsel of Juda and of Jerusalem in this place: and I will destroy them with the sword in the sight of their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give their carcasses to be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth.

Et ponam civitatem hanc in stuporem, et in sibilum: omnis qui præterierit per eam obstupescet, et sibilabit super universa plaga ejus.

A thing of horror and scorn this city shall be; no passer-by but will shudder at it, or hiss derision at the memory of its sufferings.

And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

Et cibabo eos carnibus filiorum suorum et carnibus filiarum suarum: et unusquisque carnem amici sui comedet in obsidione, et in angustia in qua concludent eos inimici eorum, et qui quærunt animas eorum.

Nay, a pitiless enemy shall beleaguer them with so hard a siege, that I will leave them no food save the flesh of son and daughter; man shall eat man.

And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

Et conteres lagunculam in oculis virorum qui ibunt tecum,

Then break that jar of thine, for all thy company to see,

And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that shall go with thee.

et dices ad eos: Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum: Sic conteram populum istum, et civitatem istam, sicut conteritur vas figuli, quod non potest ultra instaurari: et in Topheth sepelientur, eo quod non sit alius locus ad sepeliendum.

and give them this message from the Lord of hosts: Broken to pieces you shall be, nation and city, like yonder thing of clay that is past all repairing; men will be finding room for their dead in Topheth, because other burying-ground is none.

And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Even so will I break this people, and this city, as the potter’s vessel is broken, which cannot be made whole again: and they shall be buried in Topheth, because there is no other place to bury in.

Sic faciam loco huic, ait Dominus, et habitatoribus ejus, et ponam civitatem istam sicut Topheth.

Such, the Lord says, is the doom I have pronounced on city and citizens; Jerusalem itself shall be a Topheth,

Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof: and I will make this city as Topheth.

Et erunt domus Jerusalem, et domus regum Juda, sicut locus Topheth, immundæ, omnes domus in quarum domatibus sacrificaverunt omni militiæ cæli, et libaverunt libamina diis alienis.

all the houses in it, and yonder palace where the kings of Juda reigned, as Topheth unclean; it was there, on the roof-tops, they sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and made offering to alien gods.

And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Juda shall be unclean as the place of Topheth: all the houses upon whose roofs they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to strange gods.

Venit autem Jeremias de Topheth, quo miserat eum Dominus ad prophetandum, et stetit in atrio domus Domini, et dixit ad omnem populum:

His errand at Topheth done, Jeremias took his stand in the temple courts, and gave the people this message from the Lord God of Israel:

Then Jeremias came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and said to all the people:

Hæc dicit Dominus exercituum, Deus Israël: Ecce ego inducam super civitatem hanc, et super omnes urbes ejus, universa mala quæ locutus sum adversum eam, quoniam induraverunt cervicem suam ut non audirent sermones meos.

All these threats against Jerusalem and her daughter cities I mean to perform; the punishment of a yoke refused, a call unheeded.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring in upon this city, and upon all the cities thereof all the evils that I have spoken against it: because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.