Jeremiah 19:6-9

6 So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7 “ ‘In this place I will ruin[a] the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals.
8 I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds.
9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’

Jeremiah 19:6-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 19

In this chapter is foreshadowed, represented, and confirmed, the destruction of Jerusalem, by the breaking of a potter's vessel the prophet had in his hand; and by the place where he was bid to do this, and did it. The order for it, and the witnesses of it, and the place where it was done, are declared in Jer 19:1,2; the proclamation there of Jerusalem's ruin is made, Jer 19:3; the cause of it, their apostasy, idolatry, and shedding of innocent blood, Jer 19:4,5; the great slaughter of them by the sword and famine, Jer 19:6-9; and how easy, and irresistible, and irrecoverable, their destruction would be, are signified by the breaking of the bottle, Jer 19:10,11, when Jerusalem for its idolatry would become as defiled a place as Tophet, where the prophet was, Jer 19:12,13; from whence he came to the temple, and there repeated the proclamation of the evil that should come upon that city, and all the towns around it, Jer 19:14,15.

Cross References 12

  • 1. S 2 Kings 23:10
  • 2. S Joshua 15:8
  • 3. Jeremiah 7:32
  • 4. Psalms 33:10-11
  • 5. S ver 9; S Leviticus 26:17; S Deuteronomy 28:25
  • 6. S Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 34:20
  • 7. S Deuteronomy 28:26; Psalms 79:2
  • 8. S Deuteronomy 28:37; S Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 25:9
  • 9. S Leviticus 26:32; Lamentations 2:15-16
  • 10. S Deuteronomy 29:22
  • 11. S Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:49-57; Lamentations 4:10
  • 12. S ver 7; Jeremiah 21:7; Jeremiah 34:20; Isaiah 9:20

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. The Hebrew for "ruin" sounds like the Hebrew for "jar" (see verses 1 and 10).
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