Chs. Jeremiah 19:1 to Jeremiah 20:6. The symbol of the broken vessel and the consequences to the prophet

See introd. note on ch. 18. Certain parts of this ch. are probably editorial insertions. See notes below. The date may be placed in Jehoiakim’s reign, and, from the distinctness with which Babylon is mentioned (Jeremiah 20:4) as the source of danger, it probably followed, rather than preceded, the battle of Carchemish (in the 3rd year of his reign, b.c. 605).

The section may be summarized as follows.

(i) Jeremiah 19:1-2. The Lord bids the prophet take an earthen bottle, and go, accompanied by leading persons, to the valley of Hinnom, and proclaim the message which he shall there receive. (ii) Jeremiah 19:3-9. Calamities which shall shock all who hear of them shall be the punishment of the idolatrous and cruel rites practised in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, abhorrent to Jehovah’s mind. The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be put to the sword, and their corpses shall be a prey to birds and beasts. All who see their fate shall be filled with horror and contempt. Lack of food shall drive the besieged to cannibalism. (iii) Jeremiah 19:10-13. Then Jeremiah is to break the bottle, in token of the city’s irremediable fate. The houses of Jerusalem, the roofs of which have been defiled by idolatry, shall be even as the unclean Topheth. (iv) Jeremiah 19:14 to Jeremiah 20:6. Jeremiah returns to the Temple court, and repeats his warning. Pashhur, chief officer in the Temple, places him in the stocks, and, on setting him free next day, is warned by the prophet of the calamities in which he and the rest of Jerusalem shall soon be involved.

1. buy a potter’s earthen bottle] The point in ch. 18 (the potter’s clay) was the power of God to alter the destinies of a people at any moment, just as the potter’s work (Jeremiah 19:4) was made “again another vessel.” The special lesson here is that there may come a time in the history of a nation when its persistent obduracy shall demand that the only alteration in its destiny shall take the form of breaking, destruction.

take] The word (supplied in LXX) has fallen accidentally out of the Hebrew text.

the elders of the priests] The expression occurs 2 Kings 19:2. They are called “the chiefs of the priests” in 2 Chronicles 36:14.

2. the valley of the son of Hinnom] See on ch. Jeremiah 7:31.

the gate Harsith] rather, as mg. the gate of potsherds. Apparently so called from the fragments of broken pottery cast here as refuse “or perhaps crushed, as it is now, on a flat rock, with heavy stone rollers, into dust from which a cement is made, used for plastering cisterns. The place where this is now done is near the Birket es-Sultan, a pool at the S. W. of the city, in the upper part of what was probably the ancient ‘Valley of Hinnom.’ ” Dr., who also quotes Pal. Expl. Fund, Quart. Statement for 1904, p. 136. It is thought to be identical with the “dung” gate (Nehemiah 2:13; Nehemiah 3:13 f., Nehemiah 12:31), leading into this valley.

3. his ears shall tingle] Cp. 2 Kings 21:12.

3–9. These vv. are probably an editorial insertion, for (a) the message which God was to give the prophet in the valley of Ben-Hinnom (Jeremiah 19:2) is here given him (Jeremiah 19:3 ff.) before he goes there, (b) the subject-matter of the passage is drawn to a large extent from other portions of the Book, specially from the last part of ch. 7, (c) as Gi. has pointed out, the style of the LXX rendering differs from that employed elsewhere; so that the Greek was probably added by a later hand, the original translator not having the passage in his copy, (d) the use of the plural “kings” (Jeremiah 19:3 and also in Jeremiah 17:20) is strange.

4. have estranged] have refused to recognise its claims.

they and their fathers and the kings of Judah] rather, as LXX, they and their fathers; and the kings of Judah have filled, etc., generalizing from Manasseh’s acts (2 Kings 21:16; 2 Kings 24:4).

innocents] not children, the sacrifice of whom is first mentioned in the next verse, but in general innocent persons slain in persecution or by malversation of justice.

5. of Baal] See on Jeremiah 2:8. Topheth is the corresponding word in Jeremiah 7:31.

5, 6. Substantially identical with ch. Jeremiah 7:31-32. See notes there and on Jeremiah 2:23.

7. make void] lit. as mg. empty out. The Hebrew verb is that from which is derived the word for “bottle” in Jeremiah 19:1. It has been thought that Jeremiah here suited the action to the word, and poured out the contents on the ground, as he spoke. The latter part of the v. is taken from Jeremiah 7:33.

9. The v. is taken from Deuteronomy 28:53. Cp. Leviticus 26:29. For the fulfilment see Lamentations 4:10.

10–13. See introd. summary to section. Jeremiah 19:10 links on to Jeremiah 19:2. This and the next sub-section (Jeremiah 19:14 to Jeremiah 20:6) are thought to be taken from the memoirs of Jeremiah by Baruch (see Intr. pp. xli. f.), as in them the prophet is spoken of in the third person.

“The people … have the same custom of breaking a jar, when they wish to express their utmost detestation of any one. They come behind or near him, and smash the jar to atoms, thus imprecating upon him and his a like hopeless ruin.” Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 641.

11. and they shall bury … to bury] The absence of connexion shews this (not found in LXX) to be an insertion from Jeremiah 7:32. Gi. and Schmidt omit the clause and onwards to end of Jeremiah 19:13.

12. As Topheth had been made unclean (2 Kings 23:10) by Josiah, so shall the houses of Jerusalem be.

13. upon whose roofs] Cp. Jeremiah 32:29; 2 Kings 23:12 (in which place the meaning probably is “on the roof [of the Temple]”); Zephaniah 1:5. These were used for festivals (Jdg 16:27), for conference (1 Samuel 9:25 f.), for exercise (2 Samuel 11:2), for booths at the feast of tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:16), for public announcements (Matthew 10:27), and for prayer (Acts 10:9).

14–20:6. See introd. summary to section.

14. Jeremiah has now returned from the fulfilment of his commission.

15. all her towns] all the others belonging to Judah. Cp. Jeremiah 34:1. have made their neck stiff] See on Jeremiah 7:26.