Jeremiah 19:9-15

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 19:9-15 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.