Jeremiah 19:1-12

Broken beyond repair

1 The LORD proclaims: Go buy a clay jar from a potter in the presence of the elders of the people and the priests.

2 Then go out to the Ben-hinnom Valley at the entrance of the gate called Broken Pots and proclaim there the words I will tell you.

3 Listen to the LORD's word, you kings of Judah and those of you living in Jerusalem: This is what the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: I'm going to bring such disaster upon this place that it will shock all who hear of it.

4 They have deserted me and degraded this place into a shrine for other gods, which neither they nor their ancestors nor Judah's kings have ever known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

5 Yes, they have built shrines to Baal, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, although I never commanded or ordered such a thing, nor did it ever cross my mind.

6 So now the time is coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or Ben-hinnom Valley but Carnage Valley.

7 I will foil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place and will have them fall in battle before their enemies, before those who seek their lives. I will give their corpses as food to the birds and the wild animals.

8 I will make this city something that sounds horrible; all who pass by it will be shocked at its pain.

9 And when their enemies lay siege to the city, seeking their lives, they will resort in desperation to eating the flesh of their sons and daughters, and to devouring the flesh of their neighbors.

10 Then you should shatter the clay jar in the sight of the people who are with you,

11 and you should say to them: This is what the LORD of heavenly forces says: Just as one smashes the potter's piece beyond repair, so I will smash this people and this city. And they will bury the dead in Topheth until there's no room left.

12 That is what I will do to this place and its residents, declares the LORD: I will make 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.