Jeremiah 19:1-15
1 Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the easta gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD'S house; and said to all the people,
15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
Jeremiah 19:1. Take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests, that aged men might have weight in reforming the bloody worship of the idolaters.
Jeremiah 19:2. The valley of the son of Hinnom. See Isaiah 30:33. The prophet stood in the very place where the infants were murdered, as in Jeremiah 19:4, the seat of their idolatry.
Jeremiah 19:9. I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons. In ancient war, the citizens being soldiers, those who resisted the assailant, and refused his terms, were all put to the sword. The Romans often did this. In all such cases therefore, the defenders would hold out to the last extremity, as was foretold would be the case with the apostate Jews. Leviticus 26:29; Deuteronomy 28:53. And indeed it was so in Samaria, 2 Kings 6; and in Jerusalem, when they resisted the Chaldeans. Lamentations 4:10. It was the same also when they resisted the Romans, as is stated by Josephus, in his wars of the Jews: 7:8.
Jeremiah 19:10. Then shalt thou break the bottle, with anathemas, that Jerusalem shalt be so broken up by the army of the Chaldeans and reduced to ashes, that it must entirely be rebuilt and made a new city. Perhaps he saw as it were through the flames, what the Romans also would do in the final visitation.
REFLECTIONS.
We here find Jeremiah in the character of a patient, laborious, and suffering minister: though he knew that many sought his life, yet nothing could deter him from his duty. He well knew that God would yet save a ruined nation, if they should repent. Oh how kind is the Lord to take so many methods to prevent the ruin of sinners.
It becomes the greatest of men to pay a deference to all divine messages. The princes, priests, and elders of Judah, though they hated Jeremiah, had yet such a sense of decency and regard to the message from God, that they followed him to Tophet. Thus should those who are most respectable for age, wealth and station, reverence the word of God, and attend upon his institutions. Their own salvation depends upon it; and their example will have great influence upon others. If superiors allow themselves to show any slight to divine ordinances, their inferiors will pay no regard; and thus the little religion which is left among us may soon be quite lost.
God will do all that he has declared, and bring about all the evil he has pronounced. His judgments will be found to be as dreadful as his word, whether men will believe it or not. They think him to be such a one as themselves; that he forgets what he has threatened, or will not fully execute it. But God is faithful, and cannot deny himself. Let us therefore never harden our hearts, but diligently hear and obey his word: so shall we escape the evil which shall come upon the obstinate, and stand before the Son of man.