Jeremiah 19

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.

13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth-all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to the whole heavenly host^[k] and poured out drink offerings to other gods."

14 Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the Lord's temple, and proclaimed to all the people,

15 "This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'I am about to bring on this city-and on all its [dependent] villages-all the disaster that I spoke against it, for they have become obstinate, not obeying My words.' "

Jeremiah 19 Commentary

Chapter 19

By the type of breaking an earthen vessel, Jeremiah is to predict the destruction of Judah.

Verses 1-9 The prophet must give notice of ruin coming upon Judah and Jerusalem. Both rulers and ruled must attend to it. That place which holiness made the joy of the whole earth, sin made the reproach and shame of the whole earth. There is no fleeing from God's justice, but by fleeing to his mercy.

Verses 10-15 The potter's vessel, after it is hardened, can never be pieced again when it is broken. And as the bottle was broken, so shall Judah and Jerusalem be broken by the Chaldeans. No human hand can repair it; but if they return to the Lord he will heal. As they filled Tophet with the slain sacrificed to their idols, so will God fill the whole city with the slain that shall fall as sacrifices to his justice. Whatever men may think, God will appear as terrible against sin and sinners as the Scriptures state; nor shall the unbelief of men make his promise or his threatenings of no effect. The obstinacy of sinners in sinful ways, is their own fault; if they are deaf to the word of God, it is because they have stopped their ears. We have need to pray that God, by his grace, would deliver us from hardness of heart, and contempt of his word and commandments.

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
• [k]. Dt 4:19; 2 Kg 17:16; 23:4-5

Chapter Summary

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.