Jeremiah 19:4
Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
The charge was delivered in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in the presence of the elders of the people and the elders of the priests. Its indictment named four evils, that they had abandoned God, had made the place foreign to Him, had burned incense there to other gods unknown to themselves and to their fathers and to the kings of Judah, and had filled the place with the blood of innocents. In this review of Judah's apostasy lay the reason for the sentence of doom, making clear that swiftly coming judgment was both deserved and certain.
Because the multitudes scarcely grasped the awful meaning of the warning, it was illustrated by the draining of a cup filled with the wine of divine wrath, to be drunk first by Jerusalem and Judah and afterward by the other nations. It was illustrated further by the dashing to pieces of a potter's earthen bottle, declaring that this people and this city would be broken beyond repair. Afterward, in the court of the temple, came the declaration that all the pronounced evil would be brought upon the city and its towns, because they had hardened their necks and would not hear His words.