Jeremiah 19

1 Thus said the LORD, Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and [take] of the Zakenim of the people, and of the Zakenim of the Kohanim;

2 and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you;

3 and say, Hear you the word of the LORD, kings of Yehudah, and inhabitants of Yerushalayim: thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Yisra'el, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle.

4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they didn't know, they and their fathers and the kings of Yehudah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,

5 and have built the high places of Ba`al, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Ba`al; which I didn't command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

6 therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tofet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter.

7 I will make void the counsel of Yehudah and Yerushalayim in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the eretz.

8 I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues of it.

9 I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them.

10 Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you,

11 and shall tell them, Thus says the LORD of Hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Tofet, until there be no place to bury.

12 Thus will I do to this place, says the LORD, and to the inhabitants of it, even making this city as Tofet:

13 and the houses of Yerushalayim, and the houses of the kings of Yehudah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Tofet, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of the sky, and have poured out drink-offerings to other gods.

14 Then came Yirmeyahu from Tofet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house, and said to all the people:

15 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Yisra'el, Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear 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.

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.