Jeremiah 19:1-12

The Clay Jug

1 This is what the Lord says: "Go, buy a potter's clay jug. Take^[a] some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests

2 and go out to the Valley of Hinnom^[b] near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you.

3 Say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder^[c]

4 because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

5 They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.^[d][e]

6 "Therefore, take note! The days are coming"-[this is] the Lord's declaration-"when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.^[f]

7 I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who want to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.^[g]

8 I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and scoff because of all its wounds.^[h]

9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other's flesh in the siege and distress that their enemies, those who want to take their life, inflict on them.^[i]

10 "Then you are to shatter the jug in the presence of the people traveling with you,

11 and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter's jar that can never again be mended. They will bury in Topheth until there is no place left to bury.^[j]

12 I will do so to this place"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord-"and to its residents, making this city like Topheth.

Jeremiah 19:1-12 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Syr, Tg; MT omits Take
• [b]. Jr 7:31-32; 2 Kg 23:10; 2 Ch 28:3
• [c]. Lit shudder their ears; 1 Sm 3:11; 2 Kg 21:12
• [d]. Lit mentioned, and it did not arise on My heart
• [e]. Jr 7:31; 32:35
• [f]. Jr 7:32
• [g]. Jr 7:33; 15:3; Dt 28:26
• [h]. Jr 18:16; Mc 1:9; Nah 3:19
• [i]. Dt 28:53-57; Ezk 5:10; Lm 4:10
• [j]. Jr 7:32