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.