and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah 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 in Topheth, till there be no place to bury.
God sends Jeremiah out of the city with a clay jar and tells him to smash it. The place chosen is the valley where children had been burned in sacrifice. One chapter earlier, the potter reshaped spoiled clay into a new vessel. So why can this jar never be mended?
Commentators read the jar as a picture of one city and one people. They set it against the sign that came before it.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 is a picture of Jerusalem and the people. In the previous sign the meaning was God's right to handle any nation or kingdom as He saw fit, and also His ability to do so. Here it is the solemn sign that God will punish the city, its surroundings and its people in public for their sin and idolatry. All who hear of it will feel their ears tingle. So it becomes a powerful witness to how awful sin is. Even the vile names of Topheth and Hinnom were not enough to describe the place of their punishment. It was to be called "the Valley of Slaughter."
Chapter 18 and chapter 19 differ in the material itself. Clay on the wheel is still workable. A jar that has been through the kiln is not.
This time it is not clay that can still be shaped, but an earthen vessel that has been hardened in the fire. It can only be broken. The message is clear but solemn. There is a time when a person can take discipline and profit from it. There is also a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart applies.
God does not break without stating His case. The charges read out in that valley name what had been done there:
"Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods... and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind."
The same writer points on to a further word from that chapter. It names one more reason:
"Behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words."
The verse names Topheth as the burial ground. That place already had a history.
This is often called "the valley of the son of Hinnom." The valley south of Jerusalem, running from east to west, now bears that name. In some part of it, thought to be the east end, children were passed through the fire to false gods. To stop this, Josiah defiled Topheth in this valley. In God's judgements the valley shall become the "valley of slaughter."
One writer sees more in Topheth than a judgment carried out by men:
Topheth points to the great judgment which the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not only the place where man carries out a sentence.
A shattered jar cannot be put back together. Yet the breaking is not God's last word.
This is prophecy. God announces that He will judge Israel (the earthen vessel). But He will also form a people that He will "build" and "plant" again.
One writer turns the sign on a church that boasts she can never fall:
It is a favourite thought with her that while other churches tremble for their safety, she is above such fears — she is God's city, and has His walls around her. This is impressive. But weigh it by the teaching of the Word, and it only declares more clearly what she is. It shows her more fully ripe for the judgment of God. Because this boast is defiance. It is not faith in God, but a denial of His rights and authority.
- Clay — chapter 18 showed soft clay on the wheel, ready to be remade. Chapter 19 shows a fired jar, which can only be smashed.
- Cause — God Himself gives the reasons — idolatry, innocent blood, and a stiffened neck that refused to hear.
- Place — God staged the sign in the valley where children were burned. That valley becomes the graveyard, so the sin and the sentence share one address.
- Reach — the jar warns every people and every system that boasts it cannot fall. That boast is defiance, not faith.
- Remnant — God breaks the vessel, yet says He will build and plant a people again. The breaking ends the old thing, not His purpose.
Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof, and make this city as Topheth.
Jeremiah has just smashed a clay jar in the valley of Hinnom. Now God ties that sign to Jerusalem itself. Two questions press on the verse: what was Tophet, and why would God make His own city like it?
Tophet was a real place just outside Jerusalem. Its history was ugly, and one writer traces both what happened there and what the name later came to mean.
This is often called "the valley of the son of Hinnom," but who Hinnom and his son were is unknown. The valley runs from east to west, on the south of Jerusalem, and still carries that name. In one part of it, thought to be the east end, children were passed through the fire to false gods. To stop this, Josiah defiled Topheth in this valley. Isaiah gives the key to why the New Testament links it — under the name Gehenna — with eternal punishment… In God's judgments the valley will become the "valley of slaughter."
So the threat runs: the city that hosted this horror will become like it. The place of their worst sin becomes the place of their judgment.
In chapter 18 the clay was still soft on the wheel, and the potter could reshape it. Chapter 19 uses a different object, and that difference carries the whole message.
This time it is not clay that can still be formed but an earthen vessel that has been hardened in the fire. It can only be broken. The message is clear and solemn. There is a time when someone can accept discipline and profit from it, and there is a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart applies.
That is the force of "thus will I do to this place." God is not holding a threat in reserve. Their own hardness has already settled the outcome.
Making the city "like Topheth" is not random severity. God's dealings match what people have chosen. One writer states that rule, and ends it with grace.
If the children of Israel abandon Jehovah to serve idols, Jehovah gives them up to serve idolaters. It is the same with us. If we sin, our sin measures and defines our chastisement. And so grace works repentance when we turn and cry to the Lord in our distress.
Judah handed that valley over to false gods. Now the valley's character is stamped on the city itself.
Human hands carried out part of this. One writer sees the language of Tophet pointing much further.
In Jeremiah 19 we see the sign of the potter's earthen vessel taken further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom comes forward, and that valley always stands for judgment… Tophet points to the great judgment the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not just the place where men carry out judgment. Clearly, the topic is the judgment of Jerusalem.
The old names for the valley no longer fit. In God's judgment it takes a new one: the valley of slaughter.
Jerusalem's confidence rested on its temple and its covenant. The broken jar struck straight at that confidence. The same confidence turns up again later in a new form.
The parable of the potter, in Jeremiah 18 and 19, was meant to teach Israel this. They were brought into covenant, yet God's judgments could still reach them. And those judgments would overtake them because of their sins. In John the Baptist's time, Israel shows the same self-confidence. In Jeremiah's day they would say, "the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD." In John's day they said, "We have Abraham as our father"… All this has a lesson for us.
The lesson carries over to us. A standing given by God has never been a shelter from His judgment.
- Tophet — a valley south of Jerusalem. Children were passed through the fire to false gods there. Josiah defiled the place. The New Testament later links it with eternal punishment under the name Gehenna.
- Mirror — sin measures its own chastisement. The city gave that valley its character, so God makes the city like the valley.
- Hardened — the potter could reshape the soft clay of chapter 18. The fired jar of chapter 19 can only break. A hardened heart leaves discipline nothing to work with.
- Beyond men — men carried out judgment on Jerusalem. Yet Tophet points on to the great judgment the Lord Himself will carry out when He comes.
- No shelter — the covenant never put Israel beyond God's judgments. The same false confidence later said, "We have Abraham as our father." The lesson is there for us.
And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be as the place of Topheth, defiled, all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of the heavens, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.
Jeremiah has just smashed a clay jar as a picture of what God will do to Jerusalem. Now the sentence reaches every roof in the city: what people did on their housetops decides what God will make of their homes.
Topheth was a real valley, with a grim history and a grimmer future. A reference work on Bible words traces both:
The valley is often called "the valley of the son of Hinnom," but who Hinnom and his son were is unknown... In some part of this, supposed to be the east end, children were passed through the fire to false gods. To prevent this Josiah defiled Topheth in this valley... In God's judgements the valley shall become the "valley of slaughter."
The valley's name later passed into Greek, and into the New Testament:
Gehenna is the Greek form of two Hebrew words meaning "valley of Hinnom."... A fire that never went out made it a fitting picture of the place of eternal punishment.
The smashed jar stood for the city and its people, palaces included. Their punishment would be as public as the sign:
The clay jar of chapter 19 stands for Jerusalem and the people... Here it is the solemn sign that God will punish the city, its surroundings and its people in the open for their sin and idolatry. Those who hear of it will feel their ears tingle. So it becomes a powerful witness to how dreadful sin is. Even the vile names Topheth and Hinnom were not strong enough to describe the place of their punishment.
One writer reads the threat as reaching past any human army:
In Jeremiah 19 the sign of the potter's clay vessel is taken further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom comes in, and it always stands for judgment... Topheth shows the great judgment the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not just a place where men carry out a sentence. Clearly the subject is the judgment of Jerusalem.
The offerings on the roofs went up to the sky. One writer, describing the same practice, gives the cult its modern name:
They worshipped the hosts of the heavens from housetops. They worshipped the stars, and studied their movements as if they could give them help and a revelation. Astrology, so widely practiced among civilized nations today, is an old cult (2 Kings 21:3, 5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13).
Judah had not swapped God for the stars. They kept both:
What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. To be what we might call a plain, outright idolater was not nearly so evil as to show that you know the true God and yet put false gods on a level with Him. It is this outrage against God that the passage describes.
The wine and the incense carried a meaning before the idolaters took them up:
Incense spoke of the merits of Christ, and drink offerings of the joy found in the life and death of the Lord Jesus. Yet by the incense they burned to idols, and the wine they poured out, the people claimed by their action that false gods had merits of their own. They claimed to have found joy in a rite that was really the worship of demons (1 Cor. 10:20), little though they knew it.
Another writer applies this to us:
Every blessing that God has ever given to man, man has corrupted. This is true of the drink offering also. We must make sure that all our worship — and all our thoughts, words and actions — are directed to giving joy to God. Anything else that aims at pleasing ourselves is like offering drink offerings to false gods.
- Roof. The sin starts on the housetops — incense to the stars, studied as if they could give help and revelation. One writer calls this old cult by its living name: astrology.
- Mixture. They joined the idols of the nations to the Lord Himself. Knowing the true God and still putting false gods beside Him is the worse evil.
- Corruption. The poured-out wine was God's own gift, a picture of joy in Christ; redirected to idols it became the worship of demons.
- House. So the houses where it happened — palaces included — take on the defilement of Topheth. That is the valley where they passed their children through the fire, and which King Josiah defiled to stop it.
- City. The broken jar says the whole city goes the same way, publicly, so that others' ears tingle. One writer sees the threat reaching past any human army to the judgment God carries out when He Himself comes.