XIX. (1) AND GET A POTTER’S EARTHEN BOTTLE. — The word for “get_”_ involves _buying_ as the process. The similitude — one might better call it, the parable dramatised — represents the darker side of the imagery of Jeremiah 18:3. There the vessel was still on the potter’s wheel, capable of being re-s... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM. — The site was chosen as having been the scene of the most hateful form of idolatry to which the people had addicted themselves, perhaps also as connected locally with the potter’s field. (See Note on Jeremiah 7:31; and Matthew 27:7.) BY THE ENTRY OF THE EAST GA... [ Continue Reading ]
O KINGS OF JUDAH. — The plural seems used to include both the reigning king, Jehoiakim, and his heir-apparent or presumptive. HIS EARS SHALL TINGLE. — The phrase, occurring as it does in 1 Samuel 3:11, in the prophecy of the doom of the earlier sanctuary, seems intentionally used to remind those wh... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE ESTRANGED THIS PLACE. — _i.e.,_ have alienated it from Jehovah its true Lord, and given it to a strange god. The words refer specially to the guilt of Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:4). THE BLOOD OF INNOCENTS. — The words seem at first to refer to the Molech sacrifices, which had made the valley of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HIGH PLACES OF BAAL. — Baal, as in Jeremiah 2:23, is identified with Molech, and the terms in which the guilt of the people and its punishment are described are all but identical with those of Jeremiah 7:31. The fact that such sacrifices were offered is indicated in Psalms 106:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
TOPHET. — See Notes on Jeremiah 7:31.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL MAKE VOID. — The Hebrew verb (_bakak_) is onomatopoetic, as representing the gurgling sound of water flowing from the mouth of a jar, and contains, as stated in the note on Jeremiah 19:1, the root of the word rendered “bottle,” and was obviously chosen with an allusive reference to it. Such a... [ Continue Reading ]
DESOLATE, AND AN HISSING. — See Jeremiah 18:16. BECAUSE OF ALL THE PLAGUES THEREOF. — The word is used in its wider, and yet stricter, sense as including all the _blows_ or _smitings_ (as in Isaiah 14:6) that are thought of as coming from the hand of God.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL CAUSE THEM TO EAT... — Once again an echo, almost a quotation, from Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 28:53). The woes of that memorable chapter had obviously furnished the prophet both with imagery and language. In Lamentations 2:20; Lamentations 4:10 we find proof of the fulfilment of the prediction... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SHALT THOU BREAK THE BOTTLE... — Those who heard the prophet and saw his act were not unfamiliar with the imagery. The words of Psalms 2:9 had portrayed the Messianic king as ruling over the nations, even as “breaking them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” But it was a new and strange thing to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND EVEN MAKE THIS CITY AS TOPHET. — This is an allusive reference partly to the state of the valley of Hinnom as a heap of ruins and rubbish, partly to the meaning of the name Tophet, as a place spat upon and scorned. (See Note on Jeremiah 7:31.)... [ Continue Reading ]
DEFILED AS THE PLACE OF TOPHET. — A difficulty affecting the construction, but not the sense, of the passage, makes the rendering _as the place of Tophet the defiled_ preferable. UPON WHOSE ROOFS THEY HAVE BURNED INCENSE. — The flat roofs of Eastern houses were used, as for exercise (2 Samuel 11:2)... [ Continue Reading ]
HE STOOD IN THE COURT OF THE LORD’S HOUSE. — The acted sermon had been preached in Tophet, in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, in the presence of a few chosen representatives of priests and people. It is followed by one addressed to the whole assembled congregation, announcing the same doom.... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS. — The address to the people could hardly have been confined to the limits of a single verse, and it is probable, therefore, that we have here but the summary of a discourse, so like in substance to what had been given before that the prophet did not think it necessary t... [ Continue Reading ]