Jeremiah 19

Chapter 19 of the Book of Jeremiah follows the account of the potter's house in Jeremiah 18 with another symbolic act involving pottery. Chapter 18 features clay that can still be reshaped, whereas chapter 19 features a fired earthen bottle that is broken. This proclamation leads into Jeremiah 20, where the priest Pashhur strikes Jeremiah and puts him in the stocks (a frame for restraining the feet).

Outline

• Verses 1–2 The LORD commands Jeremiah to buy a potter's earthen bottle, take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, and go to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom near the Harsith Gate.
• Verses 3–9 Jeremiah proclaims disaster against the kings of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem because they burned incense to other gods, shed the blood of the innocent, built high places (altars on elevated sites) for Baal, and burned their sons with fire as burnt offerings. The place is to be called "the valley of slaughter," and the besieged people will eat the flesh of their children and their friends.
• Verses 10–13 Breaking the bottle before those who accompanied him, Jeremiah declares that God will break this people and this city like a shattered vessel and make it like Tophet. The houses on whose roofs incense was burned to the host of heaven (the sun, moon, and stars) are also declared defiled.
• Verses 14–15 Returning from Tophet, Jeremiah stands in the court of the LORD's house and announces that, because the people have hardened their necks and refused to hear God's words, the disaster He has pronounced will come upon the city and all its towns.

Key Verses

• Jeremiah 19:11 "as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again" — This directly explains the meaning of the symbolic act.
• Jeremiah 19:5 "which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind" — This states that God never desired child sacrifice. Similar wording appears in 7:31 and 32:35.
• Jeremiah 19:15 "because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words" — This sums up the reason for the judgment in a single phrase.

People and Places

• Jeremiah: The prophet who performs this symbolic act.
• The elders of the people and the elders of the priests: Leaders whom Jeremiah takes along as witnesses.
• Valley of Hinnom: A valley south of Jerusalem.
• Tophet: The site within the Valley of Hinnom where children were burned as offerings. According to 2 Kings 23:10, King Josiah defiled it so that it could no longer be used.
• Harsith Gate: A gate of Jerusalem opening toward the Valley of Hinnom. Its name is sometimes interpreted as "Potsherd Gate."
• Baal: A Canaanite god, mentioned in this chapter as the recipient of child sacrifice.
• The court of the LORD's house: The court of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Points for Reflection

• Many interpreters read chapters 18 and 19 as a contrast between a state in which repentance is still possible and one that has become hardened. However, the Book of Jeremiah later promises a return from exile and a new covenant (chapter 31). For this reason, many interpreters take the statement that the vessel "cannot be made whole again" as referring to the judgment that would fall on the Jerusalem of that time and on that generation.
• Verse 9 echoes the warning of Deuteronomy 28:53. Lamentations 4:10 laments that such horrors actually occurred when Jerusalem was besieged.
• The name of the Valley of Hinnom became the source of "Gehenna," the New Testament term for hell (Matthew 5:22 and elsewhere).
• Matthew 27:9–10 presents the purchase of the potter's field with the silver received by Judas Iscariot as the fulfillment of a prophecy by Jeremiah. The wording, however, is closer to Zechariah 11:12–13. Some interpreters therefore suggest that Matthew had in mind both the potter of Jeremiah 18–19 and the field purchase of Jeremiah 32.