and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the pottery-gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
Chapter 18 sent Jeremiah to watch a potter at work; here he is sent out of the city with a finished clay jar in his hand. One writer sets the two scenes side by side to show how the second finishes what the first began.
The parable of the potter in Jeremiah 18 was meant to let Israel know one thing. They had been brought into covenant with God, yet they were still within reach of the Lord's judgments and visitations. So in Jeremiah 19 that judgment is carried out in picture form.
The valley outside Jerusalem already had a history. Jeremiah had to speak God's message on that very ground.
This time his task is to buy an earthen jar. He must take some of the elders of the people with him and go to the valley of the son of Hinnom. This dreadful place was known for idolatry: there people sent their children through the fire and sacrificed them to Molech (see 2 Kings 23:10). Jeremiah had to announce judgment there. Then he had to break the jar: "So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended."
Wherever Scripture names this valley, the meaning is the same. One writer says its new name points past any judgment carried out by men.
In Jeremiah 19 we have the sign of the potter's earthen vessel further developed. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom comes into view, and that valley always means judgment. "Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter." Topheth points to the great judgment which the Lord will execute when He Himself comes. It is not just the place where men carry out a sentence.
Commentators differ on the timing. One writer ties them to the siege that soon came: "It was fulfilled during the siege of Jerusalem (Lam. 4:10)," writes Arno C. Gaebelein.
The preaching was public, at a city gate, and the clay jar preached along with the prophet.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 is figurative of Jerusalem and the people. The earlier sign showed God's right to handle any nation or kingdom as He saw fit, and His power to do it. This sign is more solemn. God will punish the city, the land around it and the people in the open for their sin and idolatry. All who hear of it will feel their ears tingle. So the sign becomes a loud witness to how terrible sin is. The foul names Topheth and Hinnom were not strong enough to describe the place of their punishment. It should be called "the Valley of Slaughter" (v. 6).
The place Jeremiah stood in gave its name to the strongest word the New Testament uses for final judgment.
Gehenna is the Greek equivalent for two Hebrew words, signifying "valley of Hinnom." It was the place near Jerusalem where the Jews made their children pass through fire to heathen gods, and which was afterwards defiled (2 Kings 23:10). A continual fire made it a fit emblem of the place of eternal punishment (Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; Matt. 10:28; Mark 9:43-47; Luke 12:5; James 3:6). The above-named place of defilement and fire is also called in the Old Testament Topheth (2 Kings 23:10; Isa. 30:33; Jer. 19:13).
One writer turns the same warning on those who feel safe today.
Christendom or Babylon has now taken this place of Israel of old. Babylon trusts in her security, despite her moral condition. She says, "I sit as a queen... and mourning I shall never see" (Rev. 18:7). But Revelation 18 is another action like that of the prophet in the potter's house, or in the valley of the son of Hinnom, teaching the unfaithful steward that the doom of the shattered vessel awaits him.
- Place — God sent the word to the valley of Hinnom, where people had burned their children to Molech. Jeremiah preached on the ground that held the sin.
- Sign — The clay jar stood for Jerusalem and its people. Chapter 18 warned of judgment; chapter 19 broke the jar past mending.
- Public — The word went out at a city gate, and all who heard it would feel their ears tingle. The jar stood there as a witness to how terrible sin is.
- Sentence — The valley would carry a new name: the Valley of Slaughter. Writers differ here. Some point to the siege that soon came, others to a judgment the Lord Himself will execute.
- Reach — That valley's name became Gehenna, the emblem of eternal punishment. Its warning still stands over anyone who says they will never see sorrow.
and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle;
God sends Jeremiah out of the city with a clay jar in his hand, and tells him whom to address: the kings of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem. The warning is so severe that simply hearing of it will make a person's ears ring. The place where he delivers it is part of the message.
God did not let Jeremiah announce this anywhere. He had to buy a jar, gather witnesses, and walk to one particular valley.
In the next chapter (ch. 19), Jeremiah has to perform another symbolic action. This time he must buy an earthen vessel, take some of the elders of the people with him, and go to the valley of the son of Hinnom. This dreadful place was known for a terrible idolatry: people sent their children through the fire and sacrificed them to the god Molech (see 2 Kings 23:10). Jeremiah had to announce judgment there.
Jeremiah pronounces the sentence on the very ground where the crime was committed. The valley's names already told the story. In Topheth, in the valley of Hinnom, people passed their children through the fire to false gods, until King Josiah defiled the place to stop it (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The disaster God announces is not meant to stay private.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 is figurative of Jerusalem and the people. The earlier sign showed God's right to deal with any nation or kingdom as He saw fit, and His power to do it. This one is the solemn sign that God will punish the city, its surroundings and its people in public for their sin and idolatry, and in a way that makes the ears of all who hear of it tingle. So it becomes a powerful witness to how terrible sin is. The vile names Topheth and Hinnom were not strong enough to describe the place of their punishment. It was to be called "the Valley of Slaughter" (v. 6).
This valley stands for more than one local disaster.
Jeremiah 19 takes the sign of the potter's earthen vessel further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom is brought forward, which is always significant of judgment. "therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter." Topheth points to the great judgment the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not only the place where men carry out a sentence.
The name itself travelled into the New Testament. "Gehenna" is the Greek form of "valley of Hinnom." It became the word the Lord used for the place of eternal punishment (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The object in Jeremiah's hand is not the soft clay of the earlier sign.
This time it is not clay that can still be formed but an earthen vessel already hardened in the fire. It can only be broken. The message is clear but solemn. There is a time when correction can still be taken to heart and do good, and there is a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart (Hebrews 4:7) applies.
The people warned here were God's covenant nation, and that is what they leaned on.
The parable of the potter in Jeremiah 18 and 19 was meant to teach Israel one thing. God had brought them into covenant, yet they were still within reach of His judgments, and those judgments would come upon them because of their sins. In John the Baptist's day Israel shows the same self-confidence. In Jeremiah's day they would say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD." In John's day they said, "We have Abraham as our father." But John, like Jeremiah, taught them again that judgment could reach them even though they were in covenant.
- Where. God announces the sentence in the valley of Hinnom, the ground where children were burned to false gods. The sin and the punishment share one address.
- Who. Kings and citizens alike must hear, and elders come along as witnesses. Rank excused no one.
- Hearing. They would not listen, so others would hear about them. The news would make ears tingle — a public witness to how terrible sin is.
- Too late. Soft clay can be reshaped; a jar fired hard can only be smashed. There is a time when correction still profits, and a time when it no longer can.
- No shelter. Covenant, temple and ancestry never put anyone beyond the reach of God's judgment.
because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place [from me], 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;
God names the reasons for the disaster He has just announced, and He speaks through Jeremiah, standing in the valley where the crimes happened. The charge runs in steps. The people left God. They filled the gap with gods nobody had ever heard of. Then they shed innocent blood.
"This place" is not a neutral word. God sent Jeremiah to one valley south of Jerusalem. Its history explains why He read the sentence there.
This is often called "the valley of the son of Hinnom," but who Hinnom and his son were is unknown. The valley running from east to west, south of Jerusalem, still carries that name. In part of this valley, thought to be the east end, people passed their children through the fire to false gods. To stop this, King Josiah defiled Topheth in this valley. In God's judgments the valley will become the "valley of slaughter."
Those fires are one reason God speaks here of "the blood of innocents." The name also keeps its meaning through the rest of the book, and what it points to is bigger than anything an army could do.
In Jeremiah 19 the sign of the potter's clay jar develops further. Now the chapter brings forward the valley of the son of Hinnom, which 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.
The list of charges opens with leaving God. Elsewhere in the book He calls that one half of a double wrong, and names the other half beside it.
With sorrow and pleading He cries out, "Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Yet how graciously and kindly He asks them, "Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness?"
The gods that took God's place were new to everyone — the people, their ancestors, and the kings alike. The worst part was where the people put the images.
This is the state idolatry dragged people into. And that is not the worst of it. Worse still, and Israel and Judah showed it: they put the images of the gods in the temple of the Lord — gods whose worship approved these vile practices. It was lowering the true God to the level of their idols.
That is what "profaned this place" means in practice: people handed the ground God had claimed over to idols. An older translation reads "estranged this place from me" — they made God's own place foreign to Him.
The verse names bloodshed beside idolatry. Judah's history brought the two together in one verdict, dated from the reign of King Manasseh.
The Lord removed Judah out of His sight for the sins of Manasseh: "For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon." From the time of Manasseh this decree could not be taken back… There were two causes for this final judgment: idolatry, and innocent blood.
God later forgave Manasseh himself. That makes what happened to the nation more sobering, not less.
God was very merciful. Even so, the evil of Manasseh brought God's government down on the nation… When King David sinned, the Lord pardoned his sin, but God's government on his house still ran its course. It was the same with Manasseh. God heard and answered his prayer when he humbled himself. Even so, God's righteous government fell on the guilty nation he had led astray.
This charge sits inside an object lesson. In chapter 18 the clay was still on the wheel. Here the material has changed, and so has what the potter can do with it.
This time it is not soft clay that can still be shaped. It is a clay jar, hardened in the fire. It can only be broken. The message is clear and solemn. There is a time when a person can take correction and profit from it, and a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart applies.
- Forsaken. The charge starts with leaving God. Elsewhere He calls it trading a living fountain for cracked tanks that hold nothing.
- Filled. Nothing stays empty. Into the gap came gods that neither the people, their ancestors, nor their kings had ever known.
- Defiled. They carried idols into the place God had claimed, and so lowered the true God to the level of idols.
- Bloodied. Idolatry and innocent blood were the two causes of Judah's final removal. God forgave the king himself, yet His government still fell on the nation.
- Broken. Clay on the wheel can be reshaped. A jar already fired can only be smashed. There is a moment when correction still profits, and a moment after it.
and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire as burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it up into my mind
This verse names the crime that brought Jerusalem's judgment: parents built shrines to Baal and burned their own children there as offerings. God does more than condemn it — He never asked for this, never spoke of it, and it never entered His mind.
Baal was no minor local god. His shrines already stood in the land when Israel arrived. A Bible dictionary explains his name and the worship attached to it.
The name means 'master, possessor,' and whether singular or plural it always has the article. He was the chief male god of the Phoenicians and the Canaanites, and Ashtoreth was the chief female goddess. When the Israelites came into the land, they no doubt found temples, groves, altars and high places set apart to Baal. There people offered incense, burned offerings, and sacrificed children to him. A great company of prophets and priests served him, as its later revivals make clear.
Some deny that the children were really burned. One writer answers that, and sets what these idols demanded beside what God accepted.
Parents were so blinded by Satan that they gave their children as sacrifices to Molech, the god of the Ammonites. From Jeremiah 19:5 it appears that Baal was worshipped in the same way. Some have reasoned about "passing through the fire," here and elsewhere, so as to deny that they burned their children. But this seems a well-meaning attempt to soften the reality of the wickedness. It was the fullest, though not the only, profanation of the name of Israel's God. Jehovah accepted a sheep or an ox, or even a much smaller sacrifice; Satan under these names demanded their sons.
The sharpest words in the verse are about God's own mind. One writer turns that same charge on worship that people invent for themselves.
How many practices and customs in Christendom have been "devised" of men's own hearts which have no foundation in Scripture! Many seem to think that in spiritual things everyone may do "what is right in his own eyes," instead of "Thus says the LORD." God condemned Israel for doing what, He says, "I did not command them, nor did it come into My heart" (Jer. 7:31; also 19:5; 32:35). It is the thoughts of God's heart, not mine, that I am to heed and put into practice.
The judgment matches the crime. God renames the valley where they burned their children.
In Jeremiah 19 we have the sign of the potter's earthen vessel developed further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom comes into view, and it always means judgment. "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter." Topheth points to the great judgment which the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not merely the place of execution by man. Plainly, the judgment of Jerusalem is the subject.
The valley outside Jerusalem did not stay in the past. Its name became the word Jesus used for hell.
Does not our Lord here, in speaking of Gehenna, or hell-fire, refer to the valley of Hinnom, where the people burned their children alive? It is also called the valley of Topheth, from the fire-stove where they burned the children. This valley was the scene of those wicked sacrifices. After Josiah's time, most believe, the valley of Hinnom (Gehenna in Greek) went on being a place of foul filth and pollution. There people burned refuse and dead bodies, and worms fed on the pieces the fire did not consume.
Does this warning belong only to the past? One writer says the same road runs through Christendom.
Idolatry and moral degradation always go together. The fearful road of falling away in Christendom is no exception. Rejection of God's revelation leads into idolatry — not necessarily idols of wood and stone — and into moral decline.
- Master. "Baal" means master or possessor. He was the chief god of Canaan, served with priests, incense, high places, and the sacrifice of children.
- Demanded. God asked for a sheep or an ox; under these idol names Satan demanded their sons — the fullest profanation of God's name.
- Devised. What men build for God out of their own hearts, God disowns: never commanded, never spoken, never in His mind.
- Renamed. God renames the ground where they burned their children. It becomes the Valley of Slaughter, and it points past Jerusalem's fall to His own final judgment.
- Repeated. The valley's name became Jesus' word for hell. The pattern that filled it still repeats: revelation rejected, idolatry adopted, morals in decline.
therefore behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter.
God gives the valley south of Jerusalem a new name, and that name is His sentence on it. The ground where the people offered their children will be the ground where their own bodies fall.
Who Hinnom was, nobody knows. What happened in his valley is on record.
This is often called "the valley of the son of Hinnom," but who Hinnom and his son were is unknown. The valley running from east to west, on the south of Jerusalem, 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. Isaiah gives the key to why the New Testament links this valley, under the name Gehenna, with eternal punishment. In God's judgments the valley shall become the "valley of slaughter."
The new name is not just harsher. The old ones, foul as they were, could not carry the weight of what God was about to do there.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 is a picture of Jerusalem and the people. In the earlier sign the point was God's right to handle any nation or kingdom as He saw fit, and also His ability to do so. Here the sign is solemn: God will punish the city, its surroundings and its people in public 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. The vile names of Tophet and Hinnom could not say enough to describe the place of their punishment. It should be called "The valley of slaughter."
This was no empty threat. The sentence reached the bodies of the people who had worshipped there.
In Tophet, the valley of Hinnom, they had done their detestable things and burned their sons with fire. Now it should become the valley of slaughter, so that their dead bodies would be eaten by the birds and wild beasts. He would cause them to eat the flesh of their loved ones. It was fulfilled during the siege of Jerusalem (Lamentations 4:10). Then he broke the bottle as a sign that the people and the city would be broken in the same way.
Commentators differ on how far this verse reaches. Gaebelein reads it as fulfilled in the siege. William Kelly sees the valley pointing further ahead, to a judgment no army could carry out.
In Jeremiah 19 we have the sign of the potter's earthen vessel developed further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom comes into view, and it always stands for judgment… Tophet points to the great judgment the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not merely a place of execution by man. Plainly, the judgment of Jerusalem is the subject.
The name outlived Jeremiah's generation, and it changed as it travelled.
A writer says: "Less than thirty years before the Chaldeans destroyed Jerusalem, the good king Josiah swept the idol out of the valley — the hideous ox-headed human figure of Moloch — with everything that belonged to it. He defiled the place so completely that no one could ever use it again for that frightful worship. But the horrors of the past had marked people's minds so deeply that from then on the spot bore the name Tophet — the abomination, the place to be spat upon. Later the very words Ge-hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom, changed slightly into gehenna and became the common name for hell."
Jesus took that borrowed name and used it for a far worse ruin.
People knew the Valley of Hinnom, the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem, as Gehenna. Fires always burned there, and maggots did their work without stopping. On the Lord's lips this word became a terribly fitting picture of the dwelling place of the lost. Hell will indeed be the great rubbish heap of eternity. There God will keep everything that is evil beyond correction apart from the good, and it will lie for ever under His judgment. This dreadful fact comes to us from the lips of Him who loved sinful men and wept over them.
- The place. A ravine south of Jerusalem where children went through the fire to false gods. Josiah cleaned it out, but its memory stayed.
- The sin. The idolatry there was so vile that even the names Tophet and Hinnom fell short of the punishment God had prepared.
- The name. God renames the valley "slaughter" — the place of their worship becomes the place of their burial.
- The proof. The siege of Jerusalem fulfilled the threat. Kelly sees in Tophet a further judgment the Lord Himself will carry out when He comes.
- The echo. Ge-hinnom became gehenna. On the lips of Jesus that valley became the picture of hell — a warning from the One who loved sinful men and wept over them.
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 hand of them that seek their life, and their carcases will I give as food to the fowl of the heavens and to the beasts of the earth.
Jeremiah takes a clay bottle out to the valley of Hinnom and speaks God's sentence over Jerusalem there. In that valley the people had burned their children, and now three blows answer it: their plans fail, their army falls, and their dead lie unburied.
This sign follows an earlier one, and it makes a different point.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 is a figure of Jerusalem and the people. In the previous sign the point 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. Those who hear of it will feel their ears tingle. So it becomes a striking witness to how awful sin is. The vile names Tophet and Hinnom could not say enough about the place of their punishment. It was to be called "the valley of slaughter."
The first blow falls on their thinking, not on their walls. God Himself empties their plans, and He does it in that very place. Psalm 33 says the same about the plans of nations.
The contrast between the counsel of the Lord and the counsel of the nations is found in Psalm 33:10-11. The Lord brings all the plans of the nations to nothing, but His counsel is eternal. Nothing can frustrate it. It remains, showing the wisdom and the power of God. As it was then, so it is today: if the Lord so desires, He will bring to nothing all the plans of men, however wise.
The place of their sin becomes the place of their punishment. They gave their children to the fire there; now God gives their bodies to the birds and beasts there.
He was to get a potter's earthen bottle and go, with elders and priests, to the valley of the son of Hinnom. There he was to proclaim the words the Lord would give him. In Tophet, the valley of Hinnom, they had done their abominations and burned their sons with fire. Now it was to become the valley of slaughter, so that their bodies would be eaten by the birds and wild beasts. He would cause them to eat the flesh of their loved ones. It was fulfilled during the siege of Jerusalem (Lam. 4:10). Then he broke the bottle as a sign that the people and the city would be broken like that.
The last clause is not just a picture of chaos. God announces it as a penalty in its own right.
One of the judgments announced on the people of Jerusalem was this: they would not be buried. Their bodies would be food for the birds and the wild beasts.
The wording is not new with Jeremiah either. Writers trace his language back to the terms of the covenant God made with the nation through Moses, listing his parallels — among them the birds feeding on the dead.
Jeremiah's quotations from the Book of the Covenant are too many to mention. Notice a few from Deuteronomy as examples. Compare Jer. 2:6 with Deut. 32:10; Jer. 5:15 with Deut. 28:49; Jer. 7:33 with Deut. 28:26; Jer. 11:3 with Deut. 27:26; Jer. 11:4 with Deut. 4:20, and so on.
The valley's meaning does not stop with that siege.
In Jeremiah 19 we have the sign of the potter's earthen vessel developed further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom is brought forward, and it always stands for judgment. Tophet points to the great judgment which the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not merely the place of execution by men. Plainly, the judgment of Jerusalem is the subject.
That valley later gave Jesus the word He used for hell.
When our Lord speaks of Gehenna, or hell-fire, does He not point back to the valley of Hinnom? That is where the people burned their children alive. It is also called the valley of Tophet, from the fire-stove in which the children were burned. Most believe that after King Josiah's time the valley stayed a place of filth and pollution. There people burned refuse and dead bodies.
- Emptied. The bottle pictures the city. The first thing God empties is not their blood but their plans, before a sword falls.
- Answered. Each blow answers a sin. The valley where they burned their children becomes the valley where they die.
- Exposed. God names no burial as a judgment on the city, with the bodies left to the birds and beasts.
- Fulfilled. The siege of Jerusalem carried out what the broken bottle pictured. Lamentations 4:10 records the horror.
- Extended. Tophet does not end with that siege. It stands for judgment the Lord carries out Himself, and it gave Jesus His word for hell.
And I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing; every one that passeth by shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jeremiah stands outside Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom. He holds a clay bottle, and the city's elders and priests are watching. There God tells him what Jerusalem itself is about to become. The verse raises two questions: why would God turn His own city into a spectacle, and is such a sentence ever final?
The location is part of the message. The place he stood in already carried a meaning.
In Jeremiah 19 the sign of the potter's earthen vessel goes a step further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom comes into view, and that valley always stands for judgment. "So look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Tophet, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter." Tophet shows the great judgment the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not only the place where men carry out a sentence. Clearly, the subject is the judgment of Jerusalem.
The ruin is not random. God gives His reasons before He gives the sentence.
"Because they have forsaken Me, and have made this place strange to Me, and have burned incense in it to other gods that neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people. They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal. I never commanded that, I never spoke of it, and it never came into My mind."
The earlier sign made one point about God. This one makes another about the city.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 stands for Jerusalem and the people. The earlier sign meant that God has the right to handle any nation or kingdom as He sees fit, and the power to do so. Here is the solemn sign that God will punish the city, its surroundings and its people in public for their sin and idolatry, in such a way that when others hear of it, their ears will tingle. So it becomes a powerful witness to how terrible sin is. The vile names Tophet and Hinnom were not strong enough to describe the place of their punishment; it was to be called "The valley of slaughter" (v. 6).
Chapter 18 showed soft clay on the potter's wheel. Chapter 19 puts something else in Jeremiah's hands.
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 but solemn: there is a time when we can accept discipline and profit from it, and there is a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart (Heb. 4:7) applies.
Jeremiah acted out several signs. What happened next tested them all.
Striking signs like the belt (Jer. 13) came true exactly. The Lord had taken up Israel for His honour; but they sought their own honour with "great pride" (v. 9), so they would be destroyed as a nation. The same is true of the potter's vessel of Jeremiah 18, the earthen vessel of Jeremiah 19, and the bonds and yokes of chapters 27 and 28. We know how all this came about, and in a way that leaves no room to doubt either God's prediction or His carrying it out.
The lesson does not stop with Jerusalem. One writer traces it to the end of the Bible.
But all this has a lesson for us today. Christendom, or Babylon, has now taken the place Israel once held. Babylon trusts in her safety, despite her moral state. She says, "I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and I shall never see sorrow." (Rev. 18:7.) Revelation 18 is another act like the prophet's act in the potter's house, or in the valley of the son of Hinnom. It teaches the unfaithful steward that the doom of the shattered vessel is waiting for him.
- Place: God announced judgment in Hinnom, where they had burned their own children. The sin and its sentence share one address.
- Cause: God gives His reasons first — they left Him, served other gods, and filled the place with innocent blood.
- Sign: A hardened vessel can only be broken; there is a time when correction still works, and a time when it is too late.
- Reach: God makes the ruin public. Passers-by hiss, and their shock tells everyone how terrible sin is.
- Result: Every sign came true. The same warning still reaches anyone who carries God's name but trusts in his own safety.
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the straitness wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
This verse holds some of the most terrible words in the Bible. God warns that a siege will drive parents in Jerusalem to eat their own children — so why does He say it, and did it happen?
God does not threaten this out of nowhere. The threat comes at the end of a list of charges, and He gives it in the valley of Hinnom, just outside the city — the very place where the people had burned their own children to idols.
In Jeremiah 19 the Lord tells the prophet to take a potter's earthen bottle before the elders of the people and of the priests. In the valley of Hinnom he is to proclaim His new message... "Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known. They have filled this place with the blood of innocents. They 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."
This threat was not new. Deuteronomy 28 had already spelled out what a siege would do to a people who turned away from God, including the loss of natural love inside the family.
They would besiege the cities, no matter how well fortified, causing the starving occupants to go so far as to eat their own children (v.53). See 2 Kings 6:28-29 and Jeremiah 19:8-9... in verse 54 we read that even the most refined of people would become hostile toward their wives and their children. Such would be the desperation caused by hunger that there would be no consideration left for even the closest loved ones (v.55).
Israel went through the same thing in another siege. The suffering did not turn their hearts back to God.
Israel's heart was hardened, so that in the famine accompanying the siege, instead of turning to the Lord, some of the inhabitants in their terrible extremity turned to the horrible deed of eating even their own offspring! See Leviticus 26:26-29; Deuteronomy 28:52-53; which was finally fulfilled under the Romans.
God puts the act in His own hand: "I will make them eat." He used an army to do it. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, surrounded Jerusalem, and commentators point to that siege as the fulfilment of this verse.
Nebuchadnezzar builds ramparts all around Jerusalem and undertakes a siege which lasts about eight months. Famine intensifies in the city, according to the word of Jeremiah (Jer. 19:9). During all this time, despite the countless dangers threatening him, Jeremiah stands firm for the Lord.
Lamentations mourns the fall of Jerusalem. It reports what the siege produced inside the walls.
Every trace of compassion and even of natural feeling had gone. We are next told: "The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people" (v. 10). Nothing could account for such barbarity but what the prophet adds right after (v. 11): "The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations." What can be more thorough than to devour foundations?
Jeremiah spoke these words holding a potter's clay bottle. What the Lord told him to do with it shows what the words meant.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 represents Jerusalem and the people. It is the solemn sign that God will publicly punish the city, its surroundings and its people for their sin and idolatry. News of it will make the ears of everyone who hears tingle. It becomes an eloquent witness to how awful sin is. Even the vile names Tophet and Hinnom could not describe the place of their punishment strongly enough; it would be called "the Valley of Slaughter." To the prophet the Lord said, "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: So will I break this people and this city.'"
- Warned — None of this came out of nowhere. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 had described this siege, this famine and this act centuries in advance.
- Deserved — The charges came first: God abandoned, other gods served, innocent blood spilled, children burned to Baal.
- Refused — Israel had already lived through the same horror, and still would not turn back. Suffering by itself does not produce repentance.
- Fulfilled — Nebuchadnezzar's siege lasted about eight months and made the words literal. Lamentations records mothers boiling their own children, and commentators point to a later fulfilment under the Romans.
- Signified — The Lord told Jeremiah to smash the clay bottle in front of the men with him: He would break this people and this city in the same way. News like that makes the ears of all who hear it tingle.
And thou shalt break the flagon in the sight of the men that go with thee,
God tells Jeremiah to smash a clay jar in front of the men who came with him — a message acted out, not just spoken. Why does God move from moulding soft clay in the previous chapter to shattering fired pottery here, and can anything mend such a break?
Jeremiah is holding a picture of his own city. The break is public on purpose: others will hear of it and shudder.
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 is figurative of Jerusalem and the people. The previous sign showed God's right to handle any nation or kingdom as He saw fit, and His ability to do so. This one is the solemn sign that God will punish the city, its surroundings and its people in public for their sin and idolatry. When others hear of it, their ears will tingle. It becomes an eloquent witness of how awful sin is. The vile names of Tophet and Hinnom were not strong enough to describe the place of their punishment; it should be called "The valley of slaughter" (v. 6).
The previous sign used clay that could still be shaped. This jar has already been through the fire.
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 a clear but solemn one: there is a time when discipline can be accepted for profit and there is a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart (Heb. 4:7) applies.
Jeremiah broke the jar in a valley with a name and a history. One writer reads the judgment tied to that place as pointing further ahead than any judgment men carry out.
In Jeremiah 19 we have the sign of the potter's earthen vessel further developed. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom is brought forward, which always signifies judgment. Tophet points to the great judgment the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not just the place of execution by man. The judgment of Jerusalem is clearly the topic.
Jeremiah did not break the jar alone or in private. He took witnesses to the valley, and what he acted out there later came true in detail.
He was to take a potter's earthen bottle, go with elders and priests to the valley of the son of Hinnom, and there proclaim the words the Lord gave him. In Tophet, the valley of Hinnom, they had done their abominable things and burned their sons with fire. Now it should become the valley of slaughter, so that birds and wild beasts would eat their bodies. He would make them eat the flesh of their loved ones. This came true during the siege of Jerusalem (Lam. 4:10). Then he broke the bottle as a sign that the people and the city would be broken in the same way.
The broken jar carries a warning for more than one city. One writer turns it on a church that boasts of being God's own city, safe while others fear:
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 when weighed by the teaching of the Word, it only declares more plainly what she is. It shows her all the more ripe for the judgment of God. This is because the boast is defiance. It is not faith in God, but a denial of His rights and authority.
The breaking is not the end of the story. Judgment on the vessel leaves room for what God will make next.
In prophecy God announces two things in this way. He will judge Israel (the earthen vessel). He will also form a people whom He will "build" and "plant" again (the Jewish remnant: see Isa. 10:20–22; Jer. 23:3; 31:7; Rom. 9:27).
- Vessel. The jar pictures Jerusalem and its people, and Jeremiah breaks it in front of elders and priests. The verdict is public.
- Hardened. Chapter 18 had soft clay that could be reshaped; this vessel has been through the fire, so it can only be broken.
- Place. He acts in Tophet, where they had burned their sons. The scene of the sin becomes the valley of slaughter.
- Fulfilled. The siege of Jerusalem carried out to the letter what the smashing announced.
- Rebuilt. Judgment on the vessel is not God's final word: He goes on to form a people He will build and plant again.
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.
And Jeremiah came from Topheth, whither Jehovah had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Jehovah's house, and said to all the people,
Jeremiah has just smashed a clay bottle in the valley outside Jerusalem. Now he walks back through the city gate, stands in the temple courtyard, and says it all again in public. The question this verse raises is why the sign needed a second delivery — and what it cost the man who delivered it.
The valley he came back from already had a history.
This valley is often called "the valley of the son of Hinnom." It runs from east to west, on the south of Jerusalem, and still bears that name. In some part of it, 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 judgments the valley shall become the "valley of slaughter."
The chapter uses that valley for a reason:
In Jeremiah 19 we have the sign of the potter's earthen vessel developed further. Now the valley of the son of Hinnom is brought forward, which is always a sign of judgment. Tophet points to the great judgment which the Lord will carry out when He Himself comes. It is not merely the place where men carry out executions. Clearly, the judgment of Jerusalem is the subject.
The words he spoke there named the reason for what was coming:
That was not all. On his return from Tophet the prophet stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 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."
He kept delivering such warnings for years. Where did that come from?
Boldness was not natural to Jeremiah. Quite the opposite. It was the power of God and of His Spirit alone, at work in the prophet, that moved him to deliver the warnings the Lord gave him for his people and their rulers. He did this over the course of so many years.
The message he carried back turned on the material of the sign.
This time it is not clay that can still be shaped, but an earthen vessel hardened in the fire. It can only be broken. The message is clear but solemn. There is a time when discipline can be accepted for profit, and there is a time when it is too late. The warning not to harden the heart applies.
Another writer compares this sign with the earlier one:
The earthen bottle of chapter 19 pictures Jerusalem and the people. In the earlier sign the point 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. He will do it in a way that makes the ears of those who hear of it tingle.
This verse opens a section about what the priests did to him next — and what it cost him inside.
Then we have a historical passage (Jer. 19:14 — Jer. 20:18), dealing with the persecution of the prophet by the priests. This attack by Pashur leads Jeremiah to open up his deepest inward feeling. There was no steeling of his heart against the persecution. His mouth was like steel, no doubt, but his heart was very soft indeed. He went through deep agony because of what he had to say against his adversary. So the very man who seemed as if nothing could bend him was in truth held in the greatest grief before God. At last he pours it out to the Lord.
One writer draws the lesson forward to our own day:
But all this has a lesson for us today. Christendom, or Babylon, has now taken the place that Israel of old once held. Babylon trusts in her security, despite her moral condition. She says, "I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see." But Revelation 18 is another action like the prophet's in the potter's house, or in the valley of the son of Hinnom. It teaches the unfaithful steward that the doom of the shattered vessel awaits him.
- Hardened. A potter can still reshape soft clay. A fired vessel can only break. Hardness changes the outcome.
- Hardened necks. God names the reason for the coming disaster: they stiffened their neck and refused to hear His words.
- Hardened place. Tophet, where children passed through the fire, becomes the valley of slaughter. The place of the sin becomes the place of the sentence.
- Unhardened messenger. Jeremiah's mouth was steel, his heart soft; boldness was not his nature but the Spirit's power in him.
- Still speaking. The shattered vessel still warns every unfaithful steward who says, "I sit as a queen."