FRAMEWORKS:
Jeremiah 19: The Clay Jar Prophecy
[Preliminary
Comment: This is a particularly horrendous chapter in
that it first reveals the awfulness of what had been going on
just outside Jerusalem and then, second, declares this will pale
by comparison to the slaughter that will come there soon.
Outside
the Potsherd Gate [otherwise known as the Dung Gate] it opened
out into the Valley of Ben Hinnom, used as the city dump. There
worshippers of Baal [and also possibly the god of the Ammonites,
Molech], offered child sacrifices in fire. So abhorrent was this
that God declares that when He brings the disaster He has been
talking about so much, the slaughter will fill this valley with
bodies of the people of Jerusalem. The descriptions in this chapter
leave nothing to the imagination and one wonders how Jeremiah's
listeners were not utterly convicted by his words, but such is
the blindness of superstitious occult worship.]
v.1,2
Jeremiah is to take a clay jar, with the elders, outside one of
the city gates
v.1
This
is what the Lord says: ‘Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take
along some of the elders of the people and of the priests
v.2
and
go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd
Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you,
v.3
He is to declare a disaster on this city
v.3
and
say, “Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people
of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,
says: listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that
will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.
v.4,5
He is to make clear why that will happen – their multi-faceted
sin
v.4
For
they [i] have
forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they [ii]
have burned incense in it to gods
that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever
knew, and they [iii] have
filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
v.5
They
[iv] have
built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire
as offerings to Baal – something I did not command or mention,
nor did it enter my mind.
v.6-9
Jeremiah is to elaborately explain the awfulness of what will
happen here
v.6
So
beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will
no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom,
but the Valley of Slaughter.
v.7
‘“In
this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and
Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword
before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them,
and I will give their carcasses as food to the
birds and the wild animals.
v.8
I will devastate this city and make it an object
of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will
scoff because of all its wounds.
v.9
I will make them eat the flesh of their sons
and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh because their
enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.”
v.10
He is then to smash the jar before them
v.10
‘Then
break the jar while those who go with you are watching,
v.11-13
This is to demonstrate what will happen there [see Introduction
above]
v.11
and
say to them, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will
smash this nation and this city just as this potter's
jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead
in Topheth until there is no more room.
v.12
This
is what I will do to this place and to those
who live here, declares the Lord. I will make
this city like Topheth.
v.13
The
houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled
like this place, Topheth – all the houses where they burned
incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink
offerings to other gods.”'
v.14,15
Before the Temple Jeremiah reiterates the Lord's coming destruction
v.14
Jeremiah
then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy,
and stood in the court of the Lord's temple and said to all the
people,
v.15
‘This
is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Listen! I
am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it
every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked
and would not listen to my words.”'
Continue
to Chapter 20