Jeremiah 19:1-12

The Broken Jar

1 Thus says the LORD, "Go and buy a ¹potter's earthenware ²jar, and take some of the ³elders of the people and some of the ⁴senior priests.

2 "Then go out to the ⁵valley of Ben-hinnom *, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and ⁶proclaim there the words that I tell you,

3 and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O ⁷kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold I am about to bring a ⁸calamity upon this place, at which the ⁹ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle.

4 "Because * they have ¹⁰forsaken Me and have ¹¹made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to ¹²other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the ¹³blood of the innocent

5 and have built the ¹⁴high places of Baal to burn their ¹⁵sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind;

6 therefore, behold, ¹⁶days are coming," declares the LORD, "when this place will no longer be called ¹⁷Topheth or ¹⁸the valley of Ben-hinnom *, but rather * the valley of Slaughter.

7 "I will ¹⁹make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and ²⁰I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their ²¹carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

8 "I will also make this city a ²²desolation and an object of hissing; ²³everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters.

9 "I will make them ²⁴eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them."'

10 "Then you are to break the ²⁵jar in the sight of the men who accompany * you

11 and say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Just so will I ²⁶break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot * again be repaired; and they will ²⁷bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial.

12 "This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants," declares the LORD, "so as to make this city like Topheth.

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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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 27

1. Jeremiah 18:2
2. Jeremiah 19:10
3. Numbers 11:16
4. 2 Kings 19:2; Ezekiel 8:11
5. Joshua 15:8; 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31, 32; Jeremiah 32:35
6. Proverbs 1:20
7. Jeremiah 17:20
8. Jeremiah 6:19; Jeremiah 19:15
9. 1 Samuel 3:11
10. Deuteronomy 28:20; Isaiah 65:11; Jer 2:13, 17, 19; Jeremiah 17:13
11. Ezekiel 7:22; Daniel 11:31
12. Jeremiah 7:9; Jeremiah 11:13
13. 2 Kings 21:6, 16; Jeremiah 2:34; Jeremiah 7:6
14. Numbers 22:41; Jeremiah 32:35
15. Leviticus 18:21; 2 Kings 17:17; Psalms 106:37, 38
16. Jeremiah 7:32
17. Isaiah 30:33
18. Joshua 15:8
19. Psalms 33:10, 11; Isaiah 28:17, 18; Jeremiah 8:8, 9
20. Leviticus 26:17; Deuteronomy 28:25; Jeremiah 15:2, 9
21. Psalms 79:2; Jeremiah 16:4
22. Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 49:13; Jeremiah 50:13
23. 1 Kings 9:8; 2 Chronicles 7:21
24. Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53, 55; Isaiah 9:20; Lamentations 4:10; Ezekiel 5:10
25. Jeremiah 19:1
26. Psalms 2:9; Isaiah 30:14; Lamentations 4:2; Revelation 2:27
27. Jeremiah 7:32

Footnotes 5

[a]. Or "elders of"
[b]. Or "incense"
[c]. Lit "heart"
[d]. Lit "blows"
[e]. Or "until there is no place" left "to bury"