Jeremiah 19

The Broken Jar

Jeremiah takes a potter's jar and the city's elders to the valley where children were once burned, announces that Jerusalem will be broken past mending, and shatters the jar before them.

The reign of Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C. by the Bible Dictionary); the chapter gives no year Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapters 7–20 are “prophecies under Jehoiakim (608–597),” and this discourse “was delivered during the reign of Jehoiakim”; the text gives no year, and nothing in the chapter fixes one.

Chapters 7–20 are “prophecies under Jehoiakim (608–597),” and this discourse “was delivered during the reign of Jehoiakim”; the text gives no year, and nothing in the chapter fixes one. Chapter 19 is a sign-act, a message the prophet acts out as well as speaks.

It follows directly from chapter 18, where Jeremiah watched a potter rework a marred vessel. There the Lord said He could do with Israel as the potter did with clay. Here the vessel is finished, hard, and about to be smashed. Jeremiah buys a clay jar, takes a delegation of elders out of the city to the valley of Hinnom, speaks the Lord's charge against the place, breaks the jar, and then repeats the warning in the temple court (verse 14).

The chapter heading says: “The Lord will bring evil upon Judah—They sacrifice their children to Baal—In the siege they will eat the flesh of their sons and daughters.” Much of the spoken message (verses 4–9) restates the temple sermon of Jer. 7:30–34, which is where to look for its first telling. Chapter 20 opens with the priest Pashur hearing “that Jeremiah prophesied these things” and striking back.

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 19 is about a place that gets a new name. The valley of Hinnom was where Judah had burned its children; the Lord says it will be called “the valley of slaughter” (verse…

Jeremiah 19 is about a place that gets a new name. The valley of Hinnom was where Judah had burned its children; the Lord says it will be called “the valley of slaughter” (verse 6), the place where Jerusalem's dead are buried “till there be no place to bury” (verse 11), and the whole city will become “as Tophet” (verse 12). The valley is not just a backdrop for the sign. It is the argument: what was done there is what comes back on the city.

The sign itself is a second argument. In chapter 18 clay that spoiled was made again. A fired jar cannot be. The words may play on the jar as well: the verb the Lord uses for making Judah's counsel “void” (verse 7) means “empty,” and the jar's Hebrew name comes from the gurgling sound of emptying. The chapter moves from the charge (verses 3–5), to the sentence (verses 6–9), to the breaking (verses 10–13), and then back to the city, where the prophet announces that “all the evil” is coming because the people “hardened their necks” (verse 15).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–2

Buy a jar, take the elders, go to the valley

In plain words

The Lord told Jeremiah to buy a potter's clay jar, to take some of the elders of the people and of the priests with him, and to go out to the valley of Hinnom by the entry of the east gate and proclaim there the words the Lord would give him.

1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

Imagery #

A jar from the potter, and elders to see it

The “bottle” is a clay flask, and the choice of an object that cannot be repaired is deliberate.

The “bottle” is a clay flask, and the choice of an object that cannot be repaired is deliberate. The Hebrew word, baqbuq, names a flask “from gurgling sound of emptying.” It is a ceramic vessel, not the skin bottle the English word suggests.

The sign answers the one before it. In Jer. 18:4 “the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel.” Clay on the wheel can be reworked; a vessel already fired cannot. Heber C. Kimball, preaching on that earlier parable at Joseph Smith's house, put it in terms of response: “all that are pliable in the hands of God and are obedient to His commands, are vessels of honor, and God will receive them.” Chapter 19 shows what comes when the clay will not yield.

The “ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests” are, in the Church edition's footnote, “elders.” Jeremiah breaks the jar “in the sight of the men that go with thee” (verse 10), so the sign is seen by the city's leaders, not performed alone.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,

Context #

Hinnom, Tophet, and the valley of slaughter

The valley of Hinnom lay “south and west of Jerusalem” and was “the scene of the idolatrous worship of the fire-god Moloch”; Tophet was “a spot” in it “where human sacrifices were…

The valley of Hinnom lay “south and west of Jerusalem” and was “the scene of the idolatrous worship of the fire-god Moloch”; Tophet was “a spot” in it “where human sacrifices were offered to Molech.” The Church edition links the place to the tribal boundary in Josh. 18:16.

The place already carried a history of reform and defilement. When Josiah purged the land, “he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech” (2 Kgs. 23:10). Afterward the valley was “used as a place of refuse,” and by New Testament times it was called Gehenna. Jeremiah's own audience therefore knew it as a place already marked unclean and condemned.

Verses 4–6 reuse the temple sermon: the same charge and the same renaming, “the valley of slaughter,” appear in Jer. 7:31–32. Chapter 7 gives the words; chapter 19 brings the speaker to the actual spot and adds the broken jar.

Sources: “Hinnom, Valley of”, Bible Dictionary. “Topheth”, Bible Dictionary. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 3–9

The charge and the sentence

In plain words

“Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. I am bringing such evil on this place that everyone who hears of it will have ringing ears. They have forsaken me, made this place foreign to me, burned incense here to gods that neither they nor their fathers knew, filled it with the blood of innocents, and built high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire, which I never commanded or even thought of. So the days are coming when this place will be called the valley of slaughter. I will empty out the plans of Judah and Jerusalem here; they will fall by the sword, and their bodies will be food for birds and beasts. I will make this city a horror that people hiss at. And in the siege, hunger will drive them to eat the flesh of their own children and of one another.”

3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

Language #

Ears that tingle

“His ears shall tingle” is a stock phrase for news so terrible it rings in the hearer.

“His ears shall tingle” is a stock phrase for news so terrible it rings in the hearer. The Lord used it of the judgment on Eli's house: “I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle” (1 Sam. 3:11). He used it of Jerusalem in Manasseh's day: “such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle” (2 Kgs. 21:12). The Church edition footnotes both. Jeremiah is therefore restating a judgment already announced; the news is new to this audience, not new to Israel's history.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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;

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:

Related Scriptures #

Burning sons for Baal

The Lord's charge in verse 5 is child sacrifice, forbidden by the law and never His wish: “which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind.”

The Lord's charge in verse 5 is child sacrifice, forbidden by the law and never His wish: “which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind.” The law said, “thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech” (Lev. 18:21). Jer. 32:35 describes the same practice in the same valley and names both gods in one sentence: “the high places of Baal… to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech.”

Verse 4 adds that the city is full of “the blood of innocents.” The Church edition links the phrase to Jer. 2:34, where “the blood of the souls of the poor innocents” is found in Judah's skirts. One reading takes verse 4 as a separate charge, “judicial murder or … bloody persecution of the godly,” since the child offerings are first named in verse 5. Either way the verse says the city was filled with innocent blood.

The Book of Mormon records the same horror among a later people. Mormon says that the Lamanites “did take many prisoners both women and children, and did offer them up as sacrifices unto their idol gods” (Morm. 4:14); the Church edition links this verse to that one.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

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.

Language #

Making the counsel void

“Make void” is the verb baqaq, “empty,” used here figuratively of Judah's counsel.

“Make void” is the verb baqaq, “empty,” used here figuratively of Judah's counsel. The jar's name, baqbuq, is a flask named “from gurgling sound of emptying,” so the two words sound alike and share the idea of pouring out. The verb is used elsewhere for the Lord's judgment: in Isa. 24:1 He “maketh the earth empty.”

One reading hears a deliberate play on the jar: God will pour out Judah's plans the way the flask is emptied, “for what is poured out comes to nothing.” The English “bottle” and “make void” do not show the likeness.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

Related Scriptures #

A covenant curse, fulfilled in the siege

The horror of verse 9 is a curse the law had already named for covenant-breaking, and the siege of Jerusalem fulfilled it.

The horror of verse 9 is a curse the law had already named for covenant-breaking, and the siege of Jerusalem fulfilled it. The Church edition's footnotes send the reader to Lev. 26:29 and Deut. 28:53, to Ezekiel's repetition of it (Ezek. 5:10), and to the book of Lamentations, which describes the siege itself: “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children” (Lam. 4:10). The prediction “was fulfilled during the siege of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar.”

So the verse is the law's own warning, announced here by the prophet, and Lamentations records it coming true.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Verses 10–13

Break the jar

In plain words

“Then break the jar in front of the men with you and say: ‘So the Lord of hosts will break this people and this city, like a potter's vessel that cannot be mended. They will bury the dead in Tophet until there is no room. I will make this city like Tophet, and the houses of Jerusalem and of the kings of Judah will be unclean like that place, every house on whose roof incense was burned to the host of heaven and drink offerings poured to other gods.’”

10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.

Latter-day Prophets #

Cannot be made whole again

The sign says that this judgment, once it falls, will not be undone, and also that it falls only after repeated warning.

The sign says that this judgment, once it falls, will not be undone, and also that it falls only after repeated warning. The broken jar stands for “the sacking and captivity of Judah,” and its breaking reaches past the return from Babylon: “Although the Jews did return from Babylonian captivity at the end of 70 years, nearly 1,900 years have elapsed since Jerusalem was destroyed and its inhabitants scattered by the Romans, and Israel is only now finally being gathered back into the covenant.”

The breaking was never the first word. In Jer. 18:7–8 the Lord says that a nation told of its destruction can turn: “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.” Verse 11 of that chapter asks Judah to “return ye now every one from his evil way.” Chapter 19 is what remains when that call has been refused. The chapter itself says nothing of restoration.

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:

13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

Context #

Incense on the roofs

Verse 13 says the houses of Jerusalem will be defiled “as the place of Tophet,” because incense was burned on their roofs “unto all the host of heaven.”

Verse 13 says the houses of Jerusalem will be defiled “as the place of Tophet,” because incense was burned on their roofs “unto all the host of heaven.” Worship of the stars was practiced from rooftops and from altars on the king's own buildings. The Church edition footnotes Zeph. 1:5 and 2 Kgs. 23:12, where Josiah beat down “the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made.”

The comparison with Tophet is pointed. Josiah had defiled Tophet to end the child sacrifice there (2 Kgs. 23:10); Jeremiah says all Jerusalem's houses will be made what Tophet had been made, unclean, because their roofs carried the same kind of worship. The charge reaches the king's household as well as the common people, as in verse 3, where the message is addressed to “kings of Judah.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 14–15

Back in the temple court

In plain words

Jeremiah came back from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the court of the Lord's house, and told all the people that the Lord was bringing on the city and its towns all the evil he had pronounced, because they had stiffened their necks and would not listen.

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,

15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 19

The one who tells Jeremiah to buy the jar, break it, and name the valley is “the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,” and “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ.” The Lord who stood over the potter's wheel in chapter 18 is the Lord who breaks the vessel in chapter 19, so His breaking comes from the same hand that shaped and invited. In chapter 18 He calls Judah to turn before it is too late: “return ye now every one from his evil way” (Jer. 18:11). The jar's “cannot be made whole again” is the sentence on a people who would not; the chapter does not itself describe the remedy.

Worth exploring next

The potter and the clay. Read Jer. 18:1–12 beside this chapter and notice what changes between the wheel and the fired jar.
The temple sermon. Read Jer. 7:30–34, where the same charge and the same name for the valley first appear.
Josiah's reform. Read 2 Kgs. 23:4–14 for the purging of Topheth and the rooftop altars.
The siege remembered. Read Lam. 4:1–11 for a description of the siege in which verse 9 came true.
Gehenna. The Bible Dictionary's entry on the valley of Hinnom explains how this place became the New Testament's image for torment.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Hinnom, Valley of”, Bible Dictionary.
“Topheth”, Bible Dictionary. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

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