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Jeremiah
Chapter Nineteen
Jeremiah 19
Chapter Contents
By the type of breaking an earthen vessel, Jeremiah is to
predict the destruction of Judah.
Commentary on Jeremiah 19:1-9
(Read Jeremiah 19:1-9)
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.
Commentary on Jeremiah 19:10-15
(Read Jeremiah 19:10-15)
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.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 19
Verse 4
[4]
Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned
incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known,
nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
This place —
Either this city, or this valley, which they had turned to an use quite
contrary to the end for which God gave it them.
Verse 5
[5] They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire
for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither
came it into my mind:
To burn —
This and the following verse, contain another great sin of this people, with
the punishment which God proportions to it. The sin in the general was
idolatry, but a most barbarous species of it, mentioned also chap. 7:31; 32:35, where it is said, they made their sons
and their daughters pass thro' the fire to Molech; the place where they did it
is called Tophet, verse 19:6, of which also mention is made, Isaiah 30:33. Baal and Molech, signify the same
thing; Baal signifies a Lord, Molech a King. Both Baal and Molech seem common
names to all idols.
Verse 7
[7] And
I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will
cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them
that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls
of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
In this place — In
this place, among others, I will make void all the counsels that the men of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, have taken to escape my righteous
judgments.
Verse 12
[12] Thus
will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and
even make this city as Tophet:
As Tophet —
That is, a place of slaughter and burials.
Verse 14
[14] Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy;
and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,
Then —
Jeremiah had now dispatched the errand upon which God had sent him to Tophet,
coming back by God's direction, he stands in the court, which was common to all
people, where the most might hear.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
19 Chapter 19
Verses 1-15
──《The Biblical Illustrator》
19 Chapter 19
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 Jeremiah 19:1; the
proclamation there of Jerusalem's ruin is made, Jeremiah 19:3; the
cause of it, their apostasy, idolatry, and shedding of innocent blood, Jeremiah 19:4; the
great slaughter of them by the sword and famine, Jeremiah 19:6; and
how easy, and irresistible, and irrecoverable, their destruction would be, are
signified by the breaking of the bottle, Jeremiah 19:10,
when Jerusalem for its idolatry would become as defiled a place as Tophet,
where the prophet was, Jeremiah 19:12;
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, Jeremiah 19:14.
Verse 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"F11וקנית בקבק יוצר
חרש "emas, vel emito oenophorum a figulo
testaceum", Munster, Tigurine version. So Kimchi and Ben Melech. ; 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
wordF12Vid. Stockium, p. 150. :
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.
Verse 2
And go forth into the valley of the son of Hinnom,.... To whom
it formerly belonged, and so it was called as early as Joshua's time, Joshua 15:8; from
the faith and abomination of the place, and the shocking torments here
exercised, "hell", from hence, in the New Testament, is called
"Gehenna": here the prophet with the elders were to go, for reasons
after mentioned; because here their cruel idolatries were committed, and
Jerusalem was to be made like unto it for pollution and bloodshed:
which is by the entry of the east gate; the way to it
out of Jerusalem lay through the east gate of the city. The Targum calls it
"the dung gate"; through which the filth of the city was carried out,
and laid near it, and where lay the potter's sherds; hence some render it the
"potsherd" gateF13שער החרסית "portae fictilis", Munster, Pagninus. ; or
rather it should be the potter's gate; for that reason, because the potter's
field and house lay near it, from whence the prophet had his earthen bottle;
others call it the "sun gate"F14"Portae solaris",
Montanus, Piscator, Cocceius; so Ben Melech, and Stockius, p. 389. , because it
lay to the sun rising; but seeing the valley of Hinnom was to the south of
Jerusalem, this seems rather to be the south gate; and a proper situation this
was for the potters to dry and harden their pots. The Septuagint, Syriac, and
Arabic versions, leave it untranslated, and call it the gate Harsith or
Hadsith:
and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee; for as yet it
was not made known to him what he should do with his bottle, or say to the
elders, until he came to the place he was ordered to.
Verse 3
And say, hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah,.... The king
and his queen; or the king and his sons; or the king and his princes, and
nobles; for there was but one king reigning at a time in Judah, and the present
king was Zedekiah; see Jeremiah 21:1;
and inhabitants of Jerusalem; the elders of which, and
of the priests, were now before him; to whom he said the following things, that
they might tell them to the persons mentioned:
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; who is able
to do whatsoever he pleases in the armies of the heavens, and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and will do so among his own people, notwithstanding his being
the God of Israel:
behold, I will bring evil upon this place; the evil of
punishment for the evil of sin; such as the sword, famine, and captivity;
meaning not on that spot of ground where the prophet with the elders were, but
upon the city of Jerusalem, and on all the land of Judea:
the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle; it shall be
astonishing and surprising to him; it shall even stun him; he shall stand as
one thunderstruck or be so affected with it as a man is at a violent clap of
thunder, or at some exceeding vehement sound, which leaves such an impression
upon him, and continues with him, that he cannot get rid of it; but seems to be
continually sounding in his ears, and they even echo and ring with it; see 1 Samuel 3:11. The
phrase denotes the greatness of the calamity, and the surprise which the bare
report of it would bring with it.
Verse 4
Because they have forsaken me,.... My worship, as the
Targum; they had apostatized from God, relinquished his service, neglected and
despised his word and ordinances, and left the religion they had been brought
up in, and was agreeable to the will of God. This, with what follows, contain
reasons of the Lord's threatening them to bring evil upon them, as before:
and have estranged this place; or made a strange place
of it, so that it could scarcely be known to be the same, nor would the Lord
own it as his; meaning either the city of Jerusalem, to which the prophet was
near, and could point to it; or the temple, which was in sight, and which they
had strangely abused, by offering strange sacrifices to strange gods; or the valley
of Hinnom, the spot he was upon, and which they had alienated from its original
use:
and have burnt incense in it unto other gods; to strange
gods, the gods of the Gentiles; and this they did both in the city of Jerusalem
and in the temple, and very probably in the valley of Hinnom, where they
sacrificed their children: gods
whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of
Judah; of whose wisdom, power, and goodness, neither they nor their
fathers before them, nor any of their kings, had had any instance; and whose
help and assistance, in times of danger and difficulty, they had had no
experience of; and, till now, neither they nor their ancestors had ever owned
them, or acknowledged them; nor scarce had heard of their names; nor any of
their pious kings, as David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah:
and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; young
children that were sacrificed here to idols, as they were in the valley of
Hinnom, which seems to be the place principally intended; so that they were not
only guilty of idolatry, but of murder; and of the murder of innocent
creatures, and even, of their own babes; which was shocking and unheard of
cruelty!
Verse 5
They have also built the high places of Baal,.... Or, they
have even built, &c. and so the words explain what is before suggested of
their idolatry; these were the temples in which they placed his image, and the
altars on which they sacrificed to him; as follows:
to burn their sons with fire, for burnt offerings unto Baal; the same idol
that is sometimes called Moloch, the names being much of the same
signification; the one signifying a "lord" or "master"; the
other a king; and to the idol under each name they burned their children with
fire, and offered them as burnt offerings unto it; which was a most cruel and
barbarous way of sacrificing. Some think they only caused them to pass through
two fires; but the text is express for it, that they burnt them with fire, and
made burnt offerings of them, as they did with slain beasts. It seems very
likely that they did both:
which I commanded not; in my law, as the Targum
adds; and which was intimation enough to avoid it; though this was not all, he
expressly forbad it, Leviticus 20:2;
nor spake it, neither came it into my mind; and it is
marvellous it should ever enter into the heart of man; none but Satan himself
could ever have devised such a way of worship.
Verse 6
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or,
"are coming"F15ימים באים "dies (sunt) venientes", Montanus, Schmidt.
; a little while and it will come to pass, what follows; to which a
"behold" is prefixed, as calling for attention and admiration, as well
as to assure of the certain performance of it:
that this place shall no more be called Tophet: as it had
been, from the beating of drums in it, that the cries and shrieks of infants
burnt in the fire might not be heard by their parents:
nor the valley of the son of Hinnom; which was its name in
the times of Joshua, and long before it was called Tophet; but now it should
have neither names:
but the valley of slaughter; or, "of the
slain", as the Targum; from the multitude of those that should be killed
here, at the siege and taking of Jerusalem; or that should be brought hither to
be buried; see Jeremiah 19:11 and
See Gill on Jeremiah 7:32.
Verse 7
And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this
place,.... The counsel which they took in this place and agreed to, in
offering their sons and daughters to idols; and which they took with these
idols and their priests, from whom they expected assistance and relief; and all
their schemes and projects for their deliverance; these were all made to spear
to be mere empty things, as empty as the earthen bottle he had in his hand, to
which there is an allusion; there being an elegant paronomasia between the wordF16בקבק & ובקתי. here used and
that:
and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies: such as
sallied out from the city, or attempted to make their escape:
and by the hands of them that seek their lives; and so would
not spare them, when they fell into them:
and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the
heaven, and for the beasts of the earth: signifying that they
should have no burial, but their slain bodies should lie upon the earth, and be
fed upon by fowls and beasts.
Verse 8
And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing,.... An
hissing to its enemies; an hissing because desolate; when its walls should be
broken down, its houses burnt with fire, and its inhabitants put to the sword,
or carried captive:
everyone that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and hiss; surprised to
see the desolations of it; that a city once so famous and flourishing should be
reduced to such a miserable condition; and yet hiss by way of detestation and
abhorrence of it, and for joy at its ruin:
because of all the plagues thereof: by which it was brought
to desolation, as the sword, famine, burning, and captivity.
Verse 9
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the
flesh of their daughters,.... For want of food; the famine should be so great and
pressing. Jeremiah, that foretells this, was a witness of it, and has left it
on record, Lamentations 4:10;
and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend. The Targum
interprets it, the goods or substance of his neighbour; which is sometimes the
sense of eating the flesh of another; but as it is to be taken in a literal
sense, in the preceding clause, so in this: so it should be,
in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they
that seek their lives, shall straiten them; the siege of Jerusalem
should be so close, that no provision could be got in to the relief of the
inhabitants; which obliged them to take the shocking methods before mentioned.
Jerom observes, that though this was fulfilled at the Babylonish captivity, yet
more fully when Jerusalem was besieged by Vespasian and Titus, and in the times
of Hadrian. JosephusF17De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 3. sect. 4. gives us a
most shocking relation of a woman eating her own son.
Verse 10
Then shall thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go
with thee. The earthen bottle he was bid to get of the potter, Jeremiah 19:1; this
he is ordered to break in pieces before the eyes of the ancients of and of the
priests that went with him out Jerusalem to Tophet, as an emblem of the easy,
sure, and utter destruction of Jerusalem; for nothing is more easily broken
than an earthen vessel; and so easily was Jerusalem destroyed by the Chaldean
army; nor can an earthen pot resist any force that is used against it; nor
could the inhabitants of Jerusalem withstand the force of Nebuchadnezzar's
army; and an earthen vessel once broken cannot be put together again; a new one
must be made; which was the case both of the city and temple; and which, upon
the return from the captivity, were not repaired, but rebuilt.
Verse 11
And shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts,.... Of armies
above and below; and so able to execute what he here threatens:
even so will I break this people and this city: the people,
the inhabitants of this city, and that itself, by the sword, famine, burning,
and captivity:
as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made
whole again; or "healed"F18לחרפה
"sanari", Montanus; "curari", Pagninus, Junius &
Tremellius. ; a potter's vessel, upon the wheel, such an one as the prophet had
seen, and to which the Jews are compared, Jeremiah 18:3;
being marred, may be restored and put into another form and shape; but one that
is dried and hardened, when broke, can never be put together again; so a
vessel, of gold, silver, and brass, when broke, may be made whole again; but an
earthen vessel never can; a fit emblem therefore this to represent utter and
irrecoverable ruin; see Isaiah 30:14. Jerom
here again observes, that this is clearly spoken, not of the Babylonish, but of
the Roman captivity; after the former the city was rebuilt, and the people
returned to Judea, and restored to former plenty; but since the latter, under
Vespasian, Titus, and Hadrian, the ruins of Jerusalem remain, and will till the
conversion of the Jews:
and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no
place to bury: where there should be such great numbers slain; or whither such
multitudes of the slain should be brought out of the city to be buried there,
that at length there would not be room enough to receive the dead into it; or,
as the Syriac version renders it, "and in Tophet they shall bury, for want
of a place to bury" in; in such a filthy, abominable, and accursed place
shall their carcasses lie, where they were guilty of idolatry, and sacrificed
their innocent babes, there being no other place to inter them in: an emblem
this of their souls suffering in hell the vengeance of eternal fire.
Verse 12
Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the
inhabitants thereof,.... To the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, as was done to
the earthen bottle, and as before threatened:
and even, or also,
make this city as Tophet; as full of slaughtered
men and women as that had been of the blood of innocent children; and as
filthy, abominable, and execrable a place as that; and to lose its name, as
that is foretold it should, Jeremiah 19:6; and
as Jerusalem did, after the desolation of it by Hadrian, as Jerom observes; for
what was built upon the spot afterwards was by the emperor called Aelia, after
his own name.
Verse 13
And the houses of Jerusalem,.... Where the common
people dwelt:
and the houses of the kings of Judah; the palaces
of the king, princes, and nobles of Judah, one as well as another:
shall be defiled os Tophet; as that was defiled with
the bodies and bones of the slain, and with the faith of the city brought unto
it; so the houses of great and small, high and low, should be defiled with the
carcasses of the slain that should lie unburied there; their houses should be
their graves, and they buried in the ruins of them: or, "the houses of
Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled"F19הטמאים "quae pollutae sunt", Gataker. , with the
idolatries after mentioned, shall be as Tophet, places of slaughter:
because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense
to all the host of heaven; the roofs of houses with the Jews were built
flat; and, as they sometimes used them for prayer to the God of heaven, as
Peter did, Acts 10:9;
idolaters used them to burn incense on to the sun, moon, and stars; to which
they were nearer, and of which they could have a clearer view upon the house
tops, and therefore chose them for this purpose; and so common was this sort of
idolatry, that it was practised upon most, if not all, the houses in Jerusalem;
see Zephaniah 1:5;
and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods; besides the
God of Israel; to Baal, and other Heathen deities.
Verse 14
Then came Jeremiah from Tophet,.... When he had broke
his earthen bottle, and delivered his prophecy before the elders of the people
and priests: or, "from that Tophet"F20מהתפת.
,
whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and whither
he went and prophesied, according to his command; but now returned from thence,
it being no doubt signified to him, in some manner or other, that it was the
will of God he should;
and he stood in the court of the Lord's house, and said to all the
people; this was the court of the temple, called the outward court, or
the court of the Israelites, where all the people met; for into other courts
they might not enter; here the prophet placed himself, on purpose to deliver
his prophecy to all the people; even the same as he had delivered at Tophet to
the ancients of the people and the priests; but lest they should not faithfully
represent it to the people, and that they might not be without it, he delivers
it openly and publicly to them all, in the following words; which both declare
their punishment, and the cause of it.
Verse 15
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... See Gill
on Jeremiah 19:3;
behold, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns: the city of
Jerusalem, and all the cities and towns near it, even all the cities and towns
in Judea; of which Jerusalem was the metropolis, and therefore called hers:
all the evil that I have pronounced against it; or decreed
against it, as the Targum; all that he had purposed, and all that he had
threatened, or spoke of by the Prophet Jeremiah, or any other of his prophets;
for whatever he has said he will do, and whatsoever he has solved upon, and
declared he will do, he assuredly brings to pass:
because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear
my words; they turned their backs upon him, pulled away the shoulder,
stopped their ears that they might not hear what was said by the prophets from
the Lord; they neither inclined their ears to hearken to, nor bowed their necks
to receive the yoke of his precepts; but, on the contrary, were, as was their
general character, a stiffnecked people, and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
obstinate and disobedient; and this was the cause of their ruin, by which it
appeared to be just and righteous.
──《John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible》