Jeremiah 7:32

7:32 So, watch out!” 1  says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley 2  the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room. 3 

Jeremiah 14:16

14:16 The people to whom they are prophesying will die through war and famine. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem 4  and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to the men and their wives, their sons, and their daughters. 5  For I will pour out on them the destruction they deserve.” 6 

Jeremiah 19:11

19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, 7  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. 8  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. 9  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ 10 

1 tn Heb “Therefore, behold!”

2 tn Heb “it will no longer be said ‘Topheth’ or ‘the Valley of Ben Hinnom’ but ‘the valley of slaughter.’

3 tn Heb “And they will bury in Topheth so there is not room.”

4 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

5 tn Heb “And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem and there will not be anyone to bury them, they, their wives, and their sons and their daughters.” This sentence has been restructured to break up a long Hebrew sentence and to avoid some awkwardness due to differences in the ancient Hebrew and contemporary English styles.

6 tn Heb “their evil.” Hebrew words often include within them a polarity of cause and effect. Thus the word for “evil” includes both the concept of wickedness and the punishment for it. Other words that function this way are “iniquity” = “guilt [of iniquity]” = “punishment [for iniquity].” Context determines which nuance is proper.

7 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.

8 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.

9 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.”

10 sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.