not my voice,
then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Now therefore go, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord: 'Behold, I frame evil against
you, and devise a device against you: return ye now everyone from his
evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.'"

But they say, "There is no hope: for we will walk after {303} our own
devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil
heart."

Therefore thus saith the Lord, "Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from
the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from
afar be dried up? For my people hath forgotten me, they have burned
incense to false gods; and they have caused them to stumble in their
ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up;
to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone
that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head. I will
scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will look upon
their back, and not their face, in the day of their calamity."

(At another time he took an earthen vessel which the potter had made
and broke it in the sight of the people.)

Thus said the Lord, "Go, and buy a potter's earthen vessel, and take
of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; and go
forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of
the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee:
and say, 'Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and
inhabitants of Jerusalem; thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, at which whosoever
heareth, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken me, and
have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other
gods, whom they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of
Judah; and have filled his place with the blood of innocents; and have
{304} built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire
for burnt offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spake it,
neither came it into my mind: therefore, behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The
valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter. And I will
make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will
cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand
o