Yirmeyah 19:1

1 9 Thus saith Hashem, Go and acquire a yotzer’s earthen jar, and take some of the Ziknei HaAm, and of the Ziknei HaKohanim;

Yirmeyah 19:1 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 19:1

Thus saith the Lord, go and get a potter's earthen bottle
From the potter's house, where he had lately been; and where he had been shown, in an emblematic way, what God would do in a short time with the Jews; and which is here further illustrated by this emblem: or, "go and get", or "buy, a bottle of the potter, an earthen one" ^F11; so Kimchi; called in Hebrew "bakbuk", from the gurgling of the liquor poured into it, or out of it, or drank out of it, which makes a sound like this word ^F12: and [take] of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the
priests;
the word "take" is rightly supplied by our translators, as it is by the Targum, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; for these words are not to be connected with the former, as in the Vulgate Latin version; as if the prophet was to get or buy the earthen bottle of the elders of the people, and of the priests; but those who were the greatest and principal men of the city, and of which the Jewish sanhedrim consisted, were to be taken by the prophet to be witnesses of what were said and done, to see the bottle broke, and hear what Jeremiah from the Lord had to say; who, from their years, it might be reasonably thought, would seriously attend to those things, and would report them to the people to great advantage; and the Lord, who sent the prophet to them, no doubt inclined their hearts to go along with him; who, otherwise, in all probability, would have refused; and perhaps would have charged him with impertinence and boldness, and would have rejected his motion with contempt, as foolish or mad.

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 (vrx ruwy qbqb tynqw) "emas, [vel] emito oenophorum a figulo testaceum", Munster, Tigurine version. So Kimchi and Ben Melech.
F12 Vid. Stockium, p. 150.

Yirmeyah 19:1 In-Context

1 9 Thus saith Hashem, Go and acquire a yotzer’s earthen jar, and take some of the Ziknei HaAm, and of the Ziknei HaKohanim;

2 And go forth unto the Gey Ben-Hinnom, which is by the petach (entrance) of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the Devarim that I shall tell thee,

3 And say, Hear ye the Devar Hashem, O melachim of Yehudah, and inhabitants of Yerushalayim; Thus saith Hashem Tzva’os, the Elohei Yisroel; Behold, I will bring ra’ah upon this makom, the which whosoever heareth, his oznayim shall tingle.

4 Because they have forsaken Me, and have made this an alien place, and have burned [offerings] in it unto elohim acherim, whom neither they nor avoteihem have known, nor the melachim of Yehudah, and have filled this makom with the dahm of innocents;

5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their banim with eish for olot unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into My lev;