Holy Bible

Go and get a potter's earthen bottle. Jeremiah 19:1-13 Dramatised truth J. Parker, D. D. There is a point up to which the potter can do what he pleases with the clay: he can make the vessel high or low, broad or narrow, shapely or ungainly; he can play with the wet clay. There was a time when the Lord could do this with man; when He took the dust out of the ground and shaped it, and prepared it for the reception of inspiration; He could have broken it, or reshaped it, or done what he liked with it, but not after He had breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Reverently, then, God conditioned and limited Himself. The Lord cannot convert the world without the world's consent. In Almightiness the Lord still reigneth in the fulness of His power. He can make the nations, and put them down; but what can He do with a little child's heart when that heart is set in deadly animosity against Him? He could break the child upon the wheel, but breakage is not conversion, destruction is not reconciliation. How does He propose to proceed in this matter of bringing the world to Himself? We find the answer in the music of the New Testament. What is there? Any hint of omnipotence? Not one. What is the tone of the New Testament? Reasoning, entreaty, persuasion. Everything depends, then, upon the state in which the potter's vessel is found. Jeremiah is to take a potter's earthen bottle for dramatic uses. He is to go forth, not personally, but officially: "Take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; and So forth." Cruelly have these prophets been used, as if they in. tended all the harsh expressions they used. They had nothing to do with them; they were errand bearers; they were sent with messages of thunder, and all they had to do was to deliver them. They themselves trembled under the very burden they carried. The Lord has made men different. Some men could not read a prophecy aloud without taking out of it all that is distinctive of its intellectual energy and spiritual dignity. Such men would turn a denunciation into a kind of lying benediction. Others, again, could not read the Beatitudes am they ought to be read, with musical tremulousness, with tears, with infinite suggestiveness of tone, with sympathy that would not irritate a wound. Each man must operate according to his own gift and function. We need some such introduction as this to the tremendous sentence which Jeremiah pronounced when he went unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate. He was there to recite a lesson: "proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee," at the moment. How he must have writhed under the torture! How his lips must have been made again to speak this molten lava! How he must have lost consciousness in a certain way for a time, and have become a mere instrument or medium for the using of Almighty God! Man never conceived these supreme judgments; they bear an impress other than human. What an awful cataract of judgment — what complaining of neglect and forsakenness — what an exhibition of treachery, blasphemy, self-idolatry, and all shame! And what resources of retaliation — what mockery — what taunting! What then happened? Jeremiah, having thus denounced the judgment of the Lord, took up the bottle and broke it in the sight of the men that went with him. Then he was to say: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city," etc. Sometimes we need graphic displays of God's meaning. The Lord resorts to all manner of exhibition and illustration and appeal, if haply He may save some. This is the reason why He dashed your fortune to pieces. You remember when the sum was large, and you said you would die in your nest, how He took you up the bottle and broke it at your feet, and you started, and wondered as to what was coming next. It was thus that God broke the bottle of your little child's life; He saw that this was the only way in which your attention could be excited, for you were becoming imbruted and carnalised; you were losing all spiritual life and dignity and value, and were rapidly amalgamating yourself with the dust; therefore He had to send infinite trouble before your eyes could be opened in wakeful and profitable attention. Thus the Lord is defeating crafty politicians, and selfish statesmen, and ambitious kings, and families that are bent on their ruin through their dignity: and thus, and thus, by a thousand breakages, God is asking man to think, ere it be too late. Throughout this condemnation there is a spirit of justice. We never have mere vengeance in the providence of God, any more than we have mere power in the miracles of Christ. The miracles of judgment and the miracles of Providence are all explained by a moral impulse or purpose. The Lord condescends to use the explanatory word, "Because." Thus we read: "Because they have forsaken Me." Why this Divine wail because God has been left, neglected, forsaken? This is not the complaint of mere fastidiousness; this is the revelation of the Divine nature. He condescends to cry that we may understand that He has heart; He is willing to send upon the earth a shower of tears that we may know how capable He is of being grieved. There is, then, a spirit of justice in the whole condemnation. Verily, there is a reason or an explanation of all the judgment that falls upon our life. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The potter's vessel broken A London Minister. I. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PARABLE OF THE MARRED VESSEL AND THAT OF THE BROWN VESSEL. The one parable speaks of reformation, the other of destruction. The vessel was made of clay which had become hard, and it was impossible to remodel it. Therefore it was broken to shivers. II. THE INSIGHT WHICH THIS PARABLE GIVES INTO THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE TO WHOM IT WAS SPOKEN. People who needed to have the messages of God brought home to them by such signs as this, who seem to have been incapable of laying to heart God's Word unless it was accompanied by some external manifestation, must have had little spiritual perception, and were therefore most likely to be in a low state as regards moral character. III. THE SIGNIFICATION OF THE PARABLE. It declares that the nation would, in time, fill up the full measure of its iniquity. The Divine Potter never breaks what can be mended. The message which accompanied the parable, being a repetition of the curses threatened by Moses in Deuteronomy 28 , is intended to make the people feel that the fault was with themselves alone if the curses therein foretold were fulfilled, and the promised blessings withheld. We come into this world and find laws in existence which we soon understand are prophecies. They tell us beforehand that their observance will be accompanied with blessings, and their non-observance with penalty. We can choose for ourselves which shall be fulfilled in our case. The people to whom Jeremiah brought this message found themselves in such a position. God had set before them "life and good, and death and evil" ( Deuteronomy 30:15 ). So that the terrible woes foretold in this chapter were the choice of the people of Israel, and not unheard of penalties now promulgated for the first time. ( A London Minister. ) Opportunities and their limit W. M. Taylor, D. D. (with Jeremiah 18:3, 4 ): — I. THERE IS A DIVINE IDEAL POSSIBLE FOR EVERY MAN. God has not made any man simply for destruction. There was one ideal possible for Egypt, another for Assyria, and another for Babylon, with their respective privileges and opportunities, and quite another for Israel, with its preeminent advantages. And what is true thus of nations is true also of individuals. He has one ideal for those who, like ourselves, are favoured to the full with Gospel blessings; and another for such as have not our original advantages. But there is a possible result that shall be worthy of His approval for each; and that each may reach that, has been His original and primary design in the creation of each. II. THIS IDEAL IS TO BE ATTAINED BY A MAN ONLY THROUGH IMPLICIT FAITH IN GOD AND WILLING OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS. It was a profound saying of a great philosopher in regard to physical things that "we command nature by obeying her." He meant, for example, that by complying with the requisite conditions in electricity, we can command that agent to do our work. And similarly we may affirm that we command God by obeying Him ( Isaiah 45:11 ). By obeying God we secure HIS approval and cooperation with us and in us by His Spirit for the attainment of that which He has designed to make us. III. IF SUCH FAITH AND OBEDIENCE ARE REFUSED BY A MAN, THAT MAN'S HISTORY IS MARRED, AND IT IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE FOR HIM TO BECOME WHAT OTHERWISE HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN. That is seen by us every day in common life. The youth who trifles through these years which ought to have been devoted to education, may possibly, as the saying is, "take himself up" in after days, but he can never attain such a position as might easily have been his if he had been diligent all through the formative period of early life. And the same thing holds morally. Sin mars the Divine ideal for a man. It deprives him of the full advantage of the skill and help of God in the development of his character. IV. IF THE MAN SHOULD REPENT AND RETURN TO THE LORD, HE MAY YET, THROUGH THE RICH FORBEARANCE OF GOD, RISE TO A MEASURE OF EXCELLENCE AND USEFULNESS WHICH, THOUGH SHORT OF THAT WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY POSSIBLE TO HIM AND INTENDED FOR HIM, WILL SECURE THE APPROVAL OF THE MOST HIGH. — There will always be in you and about you, indeed, the marks of your former lives; but God has you yet upon the wheel, and He will make you "another vessel as it pleases Him." Think here of such a case as that of Manasseh. But why need we go so far back for illustrations of this truth? I think of John Newton in the pulpit, doing a noble work for God and men in spite of his early sins and shameful habits. He was never such a man as he might have been had he been all through his days truly devoted to his God, but he was a good and useful man after all, saved by grace through faith in Christ and repentance unto life. I think of some, long enslaved by intemperance, and even yet feeling degraded at the thought of what but for it they might have been, but now emancipated from the thraldom of habit, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through faith in Jesus, and living mainly "for the good that they can do." And with such cases before me, I proclaim the willingness of God to save all who penitently turn to Him, and to make them vessels of mercy which He will "prepare for His glory." V. IF THE MAN HARDEN HIMSELF INTO PERSISTENT REJECTION OF GOD, AND SHOW STUBBORN IMPENITENCE, THERE COMES A TIME WHEN IMPROVEMENT IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE, AND THERE IS NOTHING FOR HIM BUT EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND THE GLORY OF HIS POWER. The clay that was plastic was made into another vessel; but the bottle that was burned into hardness and was found to be worthless, was broken into pieces and cast out. So when impenitence is perversely persisted in there comes a point at which the heart is so hardened thereby that repentance is neither thought of, nor prompted to, nor desired, and the man is abandoned to perdition. Do not dream of probation after death. Even if it were true that such a thing were to be given to the heathen, there would still be no hope for you. And so, while you may, before the day of grace ends and the door of opportunity is shut, return to the Lord by faith in Jesus and in obedience unto Him. I conclude with a word of exhortation especially addressed to the young. I have tried to show you that the morning of sin will prevent you from reaching the highest excellence of character in life, and I have pointed out also that, though you may afterward turn to God, the result, at last, will be short of that which otherwise you might have gained. How important it must be, therefore, to give yourselves to God, in Christ, with the first dawnings of your moral intelligence! ( W. M. Taylor, D. D. ) A broken vessel F. B. Meyer, B. A. An earthen vessel is a true emblem of human life, so frail, so brittle. But there is something frailer yet in our resolutions and efforts after holiness. And when once these have failed us, we can never be again what we were. Always the crack, the rivets, the mark of the join. In Gideon's days there was a light within the earthen vessels; and when these were broken it shone forth. There is, therefore, a breaking of the vessel which is salutary and desirable. If there be in any one of us a proud and evil disposition, a masterful self-will, which frets for its own way and makes itself strong against God, then indeed we may ask to be so broken as never to be whole again. "Take me — break me — make me," is a very wholesome prayer for us all. ( F. B. Meyer, B. A. ) Punishment made to tally with the sin A. F. Fausset, M. A. How exactly God's judgments tally in their attendant circumstances to the sin which has provoked them. The valley of Hinnom, the scene of the Jews' greatest guilt, was made the scene of the denunciation of their doom, and was to be the scene of its execution (ver. 2). As its name Tophet once indicated the loud drum peal of joy (ver. 6), so it was hereafter to be noted as the scene of unmingled woe. Once it resounded with the cries of "innocent" (ver. 4) children cruelly put to death, hereafter it was to resound with the death groans of adult men who richly merited their retributive punishment. As the "houses of Jerusalem" were defiled by the burnt offerings "unto the host of heaven" upon the flat roofs, so were they to be "defiled as Tophet" and to be burnt with fire by the enemy, as the Jews "estranged" the place (ver. 4) which was God's from Him who was its rightful owner, so was the land to be estranged from them and given to strangers, whilst they themselves must sojourn as captives and strangers in a strange land. ( A. F. Fausset, M. A. ).

Benson Commentary Jeremiah 19:1 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; Jeremiah 19:1-2 . Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle — The meaning of this emblem is fully explained in the subsequent verses; and indeed the whole chapter requires little more comment than a reference to the passages in the margin. And take of the ancients of the people — Or, take with thee some of the ancients, &c. By these, men of reputation and eminence are meant, probably such as were members of the Sanhedrim. And of the ancients of the priests — The heads of the four and twenty courses: see 1 Chronicles 24:4 . Such were the most proper to be witnesses of those things which the prophet was about to say and do. And go unto the valley of the son of Hinnom — A most noted valley, to the east of Jerusalem; which is by the entry of the east gate — By which men entered into the temple; from whence they had a prospect of the valley of Hinnom, which lay south- east of the temple, Joshua 15:8 . The Hebrew is ???? ?????? , the gate Harsith, which some interpret, the dung gate, mentioned Nehemiah 2:13 ; others, the potters’ gate; the potters’ field being near the temple: see Zechariah 11:13 . Jeremiah 19:2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, Jeremiah 19:3 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. Jeremiah 19:3-5 . Say, Hear, &c., O kings of Judah — See note on Jeremiah 17:20 . Behold, I will bring evil upon this place — That is, upon Judah and Jerusalem, so surprising and so dreadful that whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle — The very report of it shall astonish the hearers. Because they have estranged this place — From me, should be supplied to make the sense clearer; the meaning, it seems, being that, by their worshipping other gods, and committing all sorts of crimes, they had caused God not to look any longer upon their city and country as his, but quite foreign from him. Or, as some interpret the expression, They had strangely abused, and alienated from their intended purposes both Jerusalem, the holy city, and the temple, God’s holy house, which were designed for his honour and the support of his kingdom among men. And have filled this place with the blood of innocents — Of the children sacrificed to Moloch: see note on Jeremiah 2:34 ; and Isaiah 30:33 . They have built also, rather, they have even built the high places of Baal — For the same sin is here expressed which was mentioned in the latter part of the foregoing verse, and the copulative particle, vau, is sometimes used by way of explication; to burn their sons with fire unto Baal — From this, as well as from some other places, it is plain that they slew and burned human victims to Baal as well as to Moloch, if these two names were not promiscuously given, as some suppose they were, to one and the same idol. Which I commanded not, &c. — It seems from this that there were not wanting some who maintained that human sacrifices were pleasing to God. Jeremiah 19:4 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; Jeremiah 19:5 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: Jeremiah 19:6 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. Jeremiah 19:6-9 . Therefore, behold, the days come — And are at no great distance; that this place shall no more be called Tophet, &c. — In Joshua’s time it was called The valley of the son of Hinnom; in after ages, it had the name of Tophet, from the noise of drums and tabrets sounding there while children were burning. Here it is foretold that it should have a new name and be called, The valley of Slaughter. See note on Jeremiah 7:32-33 . I will make void the counsel, &c., in this place — They shed innocent blood in this place, and in this place God would discomfit them, and cause their blood to be shed by the hands of the Chaldeans. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters — A terrible judgment threatened by Moses, Deuteronomy 28:53 ; and actually fulfilled in the siege of Jerusalem. See Lamentations 4:10 . Jeremiah 19:7 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. Jeremiah 19:8 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. Jeremiah 19:9 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. Jeremiah 19:10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, Jeremiah 19:10-13 . Then shalt thou break the bottle, &c. — This was intended to be a symbolical representation of the ruin threatened against them, used in order to strike the beholders more powerfully than mere words could do. Of such symbolical actions as these there are several instances in the Scriptures. Thus saith the Lord, Even so will I break this people — That is, as Jeremiah breaketh the bottle: That cannot be made whole again — That is, the ruin of Jerusalem shall be an utter ruin: no hand can repair it but his that broke it; and if they return to him, though he has torn, he will heal. In fact, Jerusalem was so utterly destroyed by the Chaldeans that there was little left standing of it. So that after their captivity they were obliged to build a new city in the place of the former. And they shall bury them in Tophet — These words are omitted by the LXX.; till there be no place to bury — Till there is no room to bury more; for the meaning is, that the whole valley of Tophet should be so filled with dead bodies, that there should be no room to lay any more there; by which is expressed the greatness of the slaughter. And even make this city as Tophet — A place of slaughter. And the houses of Jerusalem shall be defiled as Tophet — Namely, polluted with dead bodies. Because of the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense — The houses of the Jews were built with flat roofs, Deuteronomy 22:8 , and there they dedicated altars to the host of heaven, where they could have a full view of them. Jeremiah 19:11 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. Jeremiah 19:12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: Jeremiah 19:13 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. Jeremiah 19:14 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, Jeremiah 19:14-15 . He stood in the court of the Lord’s house — The great court, called the outer court, Ezekiel 46:21 , supposed to be the same with the new court, mentioned 2 Chronicles 20:5 , as having been built since Solomon’s time. And said to all the people — Confirming, and probably repeating to them, who had not heard it, what he had said to the ancients in the valley of Tophet. Thus saith the Lord of hosts — Who is well able to make his words good, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns — All the cities of Judah and Benjamin are meant which acknowledged Jerusalem for their metropolis, and were subordinate to her. All the evil that I have pronounced against it — As if he had said, Flatter not yourselves with a conceit that God will be better to you than his word. Whatever you may suppose to the contrary, the execution of the divine threatening will fully answer the prediction, and the former will be found, by experience, to be as terrible as the latter represents it to be; because they have hardened their necks — And would not bend them to the yoke of God’s commands; and would not hear his words — Would not heed and yield obedience to them. Jeremiah 19:15 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. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 19:1 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; CHAPTER XII THE BROKEN VESSEL - A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT Jeremiah 19:1-15 THE result of his former address, founded upon the procedure of the potter, had only been to bring out into clearer distinctness the appalling extent of the national corruption. It was evident that Judah was incorrigible, and the Potter’s vessel must be broken in pieces by its Maker. "Thus said Iahvah: Go and buy a bottle" ( baqbuq , as if "a pour pour"; the meaning is alluded to in the first word of Jeremiah 19:7 : ubaqqothi , " and I will pour out") "of a moulder of pottery" so the accents; but perhaps the Vulgate is right: " lagunculam figuli testeam ," "a potter’s earthen vessel," A.V.; lit. a potter’s bottle, viz., earthenware), "and" (take: LXX rightly adds) "some of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests, and go out into the valley of ben Hinnom at the entry of the Pottery Gate" (a postern, where broken earthenware and rubbish were shot forth into the valley: the term is connected with that for "pottery," Jeremiah 19:1 , which is the same as that in Job 2:8 ), "and cry there the words that I shall speak unto thee,"-Jeremiah does not pause here, to relate how he followed the Divine impulse, but goes on at once to communicate the tenor of the Divine "words"; a circumstance which points to the fact that this narrative was only written some time after the symbolical action which it records; "and say thou, Hear ye Iahvah’s word, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Lo, I am about to bring an evil upon this place, such that, whoever heareth it, his ears shall tingle!" If we suppose, as seems likely, that this series of oracles ( Jeremiah 18:1-23 ; Jeremiah 19:1-15 ; Jeremiah 20:1-18 ) belongs to the reign of Jehoiachin, the expression "kings of Judah" may denote that king and the queen mother. Another view is that the kings of Judah in general are addressed "as an indefinite class of persons," here and elsewhere, { Jeremiah 17:20 ; Jeremiah 22:4 } because the prophet did not write the main portion of his book until after the siege of Jerusalem (Ewald). The announcement of this verse is quoted by the compiler of Kings in relation to the crimes of king Manasseh. { 2 Kings 21:12 } "Because that they forsook Me, and made this place strange"-alienated it from Iahvah by consecrating it to "strange gods"; or, as the Targum and Syriac, "polluted" it-"and burnt incense therein to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers knew"; { Jeremiah 16:13 } "and the kings of Judah did fill this place with blood of innocents" (so the LXX "Nor the kings of Judah" gives a poor sense; they are included in the preceding phrase), "and built the bamoth Baal " (High places of Baal; a proper name), { Joshua 13:17 } "to burn their sons in the fire," ("as burnt offerings to the Baal"; LXX omits, and it is wanting, Jeremiah 7:31 , Jeremiah 32:35 . It may be a gloss, but is probably genuine, as there are slight variations in each passage), "which I commanded not" ("nor spake": LXX omits), "neither came it into My mind: therefore, behold days are coming, saith Iahvah, when this place will no more be called the Tophet and valley of ben Hinnom but the Valley of Slaughter!" ("and in Tophet shall they bury, so that there be"-remain-"no room to bury!" This clause, preserved at the end of Jeremiah 19:11 , but omitted there by the LXX, probably belongs here). "And I will pour out" { Isaiah 19:3 } "the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place"-that is, I will empty the land of all wisdom and resourcefulness, as one empties a bottle of its water, so that the heads of the state shall be powerless to devise any effectual scheme of defence in the face of calamity {cf. Jeremiah 13:13 } -"and I will cause them to fall by the sword ‘before their enemies"’, { Deuteronomy 28:25 } "and by the hand of them that seek their life; and I will make ‘their carcases food unto the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth"’ ( Deuteronomy 28:26 ; Jeremiah 7:33 , Jeremiah 16:4 ). "And I will set this city ‘for an astonishment"’ { Deuteronomy 28:37 } "and a hissing"; { Deuteronomy 18:16 } "every one that passeth by her shall be astonished and hiss at all her ‘strokes"’ { Jeremiah 49:17 ; Jeremiah 1:13 } or "plagues." { Deuteronomy 28:59 } "And I will cause them to ‘eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters,’ and each the flesh of his fellow shall they eat-‘in the stress and the straitness wherewith their enemies’ and they that seek their life ‘shall straiten them."’ It will be seen from the references that the Deuteronomic colouring of these closing threats ( Jeremiah 19:7-9 ) is very strong, the last verse being practically a quotation. { Deuteronomy 28:53 } The effect of the whole oracle would thus be to suggest that the terrible sanctions of the sacred Law would not remain inoperative; but that the shameless violation of the solemn covenant under Josiah, by which the nation undertook to observe the code of Deuteronomy, would soon be visited with the retributive calamities so vividly foreshadowed in that book. "And break thou the bottle, to the eyes of the men that go with thee, and say unto them: Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth; So will I break this people and this cry, as one breaketh the potter’s vessel so that it cannot be mended again! Thus will I do to this place, saith Iahvah, and to the inhabitants thereof, and make" (infin. constr), as in Jeremiah 17:10 , continuing the mood and person of the preceding verb; which is properly a function of the infin, absol., as in Jeremiah 19:13 ) "this city like a Tophet "-make it one huge altar of human sacrifice, a burning place for thousands of human victims. "And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah"-the palace of David and Solomon, in which king after king had reigned, and "done the evil in Iahvah’s eyes,"-"shall become like the place of the Tophet , the defiled ones! even all the houses upon the roofs of which they burnt incense unto all the host of heaven, and poured outpourings" (libations of wine and honey) "unto other gods." (So the Hebrews punctuation, which seems to give a very good sense. The principal houses those of the kings and grandees, are called "the defiled," because their roofs especially have been polluted with idolatrous rites. The last clause of the verse explains the epithet, which might have been referred to "the kings of Judah," had it preceded "like the place of the Tophet ." The houses were not to become "defiled"; they were already so, past all cleansing; they were to be destroyed with fire, and in their destruction to become the Tophet or sacrificial pyre of their inhabitants. We need not, therefore, read " Tophteh ," after Isaiah 30:33 , as I at first thought of doing, to find afterwards that Ewald had already suggested it. The term rendered "even all," is lit. "unto all," that is, "including all." {cf. Ezekiel 44:9 } The command "and break thou the bottle and say unto them" compared with that of Jeremiah 19:2 , "and cry there the words that I shall speak unto thee!" seems to indicate the proper point of view from which the whole piece is to be regarded. Jeremiah is recalling and describing a particular episode in his past ministry; and he includes the whole of it, with the attendant circumstances and all that he said, first to the elders in the vale of ben Hinnom, and then to the people assembled in the temple, under the comprehensive "Thus said Iahvah!" with which he begins his narrative. In other words, he affirms that he was throughout the entire occurrence guided by the impulses of the Spirit of God. It is very possible that the longer first address ( Jeremiah 19:2-9 ) really gives the substance of what he said to the people in the temple on his return from the valley, which is merely summarised in Jeremiah 19:15 . "And Jeremiah came in"-into the temple "from the Tophet , whither Iahvah had sent him to prophesy, and took his stand in the court of Iahvah’s House; and said unto all the people: Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth Israel’s God; Lo, I am about to bring upon" ( Jeremiah 19:3 ) "this city and upon all her cities" ("and upon her villages": LXX adds) "all the evil that I have spoken concerning her; because they stiffened their neck," { Jeremiah 7:26 } "not to hear My words!" In this apparent epitome of His discourse to the people in the temple, the prophet seems to sum up all his past labours, in view of an impending crisis. "All the evil" spoken hitherto concerning Jerusalem is upon the point of being accomplished. {cf. Jeremiah 25:3 } In reviewing the entire oracle, we may note as in former instances, the care with which all the circumstances of the symbolical action are chosen, in order to enhance the effect of it upon the minds of the witnesses. The Oriental mind delights in everything that partakes of the nature of an enigma; it loves to be called upon to unravel the meaning of dark sentences, and to disentangle the wisdom wrapped up in riddling words and significant actions. It would have found eloquence in Tarquin’s unspoken answer to his son’s messenger. " Rex velut deliberabundus in hortum aedium transit, sequente nuncio filii: ibi inambulans tacitus summa papaverum capita dicitur baculo decussisse " (Liv. 1:54). No doubt Jeremiah’s companions would watch his every step, and would not miss the fact that he carried his earthenware vessel out of the city by the "Sherd Gate." Here was a vessel yet whole, treated as though it were already a shattered heap of fragments! They would be prepared for the oracle in the valley. It is worth while, by the way, to notice who those companions were. They were certain of "the elders of the people" and of "the elders of the priests." Jeremiah, it seems, was no wild revolutionary dreamer and schemer, whose hand and voice were against all established authority in Church and State. This was not the character of the Hebrew prophets in general, though some writers have conceived thus of them. There is no evidence that Jeremiah ever sought to divest himself of the duties and privileges of his hereditary priesthood; or that he looked upon the monarchy and the priestly guilds and the entire social organisation of Israel, as other than institutions divinely originated and divinely preserved through all the ages of the national history. He did not believe that man created these institutions, though experience taught him that man might abuse and pervert them from their lawful uses. His aim was always to reform, to restore, to lead the people back to "the old paths" of primitive simplicity and rectitude; not to abolish hereditary institutions, and substitute for the order which had become an integral part of the national life, some brand new constitution which had never been tried, and would be no more likely to fit the body corporate than the armour of Saul fitted the free limbs of the young shepherd who was to slay Goliath. The prophets never called for the abolition of those laws and customs, civil and ecclesiastical, which were the very framework of the state, and the pillars of the social edifice. They did not cry, "Down with kings and priests!" but to both kings and priests they cried, "Hear ye Iahvah’s word!" And all experience proves that they were right. Paper constitutions have never yet redeemed a nation from its vices, nor delivered a community from the impotence and the decay which are the inevitable fruits of moral corruption. Arbitrary legislative changes will not alter the inward condition of a people; covetousness and hypocrisy, pride and selfishness, intemperance and uncleanness and cruelty, may be as rampant in a commonwealth as in a kingdom. The contents of the oracle are much what we have had many times already. The chief difference lies in a calm definiteness of assurance, a tone of distinct certitude, as though the end were so near at hand as to leave no room for doubt or hesitation. And this difference is fittingly and impressively suggested by the particular symbol chosen-the shattering of an earthenware vessel, beyond the possibility of repair. The direct mention of the king of Babylon and the Babylonian captivity, in the sequel (chapter 20), points to the presence of a Babylonian invasion, probably that which ended with the exile of Jeconiah and the chief citizens of Jerusalem. The fatal sin, from which the oracle starts and to which it returns, is forsaking Iahvah, and making the city of His choice "strange" to Him, that is, hateful and unclean, by contact with foreign and bloody superstitions, which were even falsely declared by their promoters to be pleasing to Iahvah, the Avenger of innocent blood! { Jeremiah 7:31 } The punishment corresponds to the offence. The sacrifices of blood will be requited with blood, shed in torrents on the very spot which had been so foully polluted; they who had not scrupled to slay their children for the sacrifice, were to slay them again for food under the stress of siege and famine; the city and its houses, defiled with the foreign worships, will become one vast Molech fire, { Jeremiah 32:35 } in which all will perish together. It may strike a modern reader that there is something repulsive and cold blooded in this detailed enumeration of appalling horrors. But not only is it the case that Jeremiah is quoting from the Book of the Law, at a time when, to an unprejudiced eye, there was every likelihood that the course of events would verify his dark forebodings; in the dreadful experience of those times such incidents as those mentioned ( Jeremiah 19:9 ) were familiar occurrences in the obstinate defence and protracted sufferings of beleaguered cities. The prophet, therefore, simply affirms that obstinate persistence in following their own counsels and rejecting the higher guidance will bring upon the nation its irretrievable ruin. We know that in the last siege he did his utmost to prevent the occurrence of these unnatural horrors by urging surrender; but then, as always, the people "stiffened their neck, not to hear Iahvah’s words." Jeremiah knew his countrymen well. No phrase could have better described the resolute obstinacy of the national character. How were the headstrong, self-will, the inveterate sensuality, the blind tenacity of fanatical and non-moral conceptions which characterised this people, to be purified and made serviceable in the interests of true religion, except by means of the fiery ordeal which all the prophets foresaw and foretold? As we have seen, polytheism exercised upon the popular mind a spell which we can hardly comprehend from our modern point of view; a polytheism foul and murderous, which violated the tenderest affections of our nature by demanding of the father the sacrifice of his child, and violated the very instinct of natural purity by the shameless indulgence of its worship. It was a consecration of lust and cruelty, -that worship of Molech, those rites of the Baals and Asheras. Meagre and monotonous as the sacred records may on these heads appear to be, their witness is supplemented by other sources, by the monuments of Babylon and Phoenicia. It is hard to see how the religious instinct of men in this peculiar stage of belief and practice was to be enlightened and purified in any other way than the actual course of Providence. What arguments can be imagined that would have appealed to minds which found a fatal fascination, nay, we must suppose an intense satisfaction, in rites so hideous that one durst not even describe them; minds to which the lofty monotheism of Amos, the splendid eloquence of an Isaiah, the plaintive lyrical strain of a Jeremiah, appealed in vain? Appeals to the order of the world, to the wonders of organic life, were lost upon minds which made gods of the most obvious subjects of that order, the sun, moon, and stars; which even personified and adored the physical principle whereby the succession of life after life is perpetuated. Nothing short of the perception "that the word of the prophets had come to pass," the recognition, therefore, that the prophetic idea of God was the true idea, could have succeeded in keeping the remnant of Judah safe from the contagion of surrounding heathenism in the land of their exile, and in radically transforming once for all the religious tendencies of the Jewish race. In Jeremiah’s view, the heinousness of Judah’s idolatry is heightened by the consideration that the gods of their choice are gods "whom neither they nor their fathers knew" ( Jeremiah 19:4 ). The kings Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon, had introduced novel rites, and departed from "the old paths" more decidedly than any of their predecessors. In this connection, we may remember that, while modern Romish controversialists do not scruple to accuse the Church of this country with having unlawfully innovated at the Reformation, the Anglican appeal has always been to Scripture and primitive antiquity. Such, too, was the appeal of the prophets. { Hosea 6:1 ; Hosea 6:7 ; Hosea 11:1 ; Jeremiah 2:2 ; Jeremiah 6:16 ; Jeremiah 11:3 } It is the glory of our Church, aglory of which neither the lies of Jesuits nor the envy of the sectaries can rob her, that she returned to "the old paths," boldly overleaping the dark ages of mediaeval ignorance, imposture, and corruption, and planting her foot firmly on the rock of apostolic practice and the consent of the undivided Church. Disunion among Christians is a sore evil, but union in the maintenance and propaganda of falsehood is a worse; and the guilt of disunion lies at the door of that system which abused its authority to crush out legitimate freedom of thought, to retard the advancement of learning, and to establish those monstrous innovations in doctrine and worship, which subtle dialecticians may prove to their own satisfaction to be innocent and non-idolatrous in essence and intention, though all the world can see that in practice they are grossly idolatrous. God preserve England from that toleration of serious error, which is so easy to sceptical indifference! God preserve her from lending an ear to the siren voices that would seduce her to yield her hard won independence, her noble freedom, her manly rational piety, to the unhistorical and unscriptural claims of the Papacy! If we reverence those Scriptures of the Old Testament to which our Lord and His Apostles made their constant appeal, we shall keep steadily before our minds the fact that, in the estimation of a prophet like Jeremiah, the sin of sins, the sin that involved the ruin of Israel and Judah, was the sin of associating other objects of worship with the One Only God. The temptation is peculiarly strong to some natures. The continual relapse of ancient Israel is not so great a wonder to those of us who have any knowledge of mankind, and who can observe what is passing around them at the present day. It is the severe demand of God’s holy law, which makes men cast about for some plausible compromise-it is that demand which also makes them yearn after some intermediary power, whose compassion will be less subject to considerations of justice, whom prayers and entreaties and presents may overcome, and induce to wink at unrepented sin. In an age of unsettlement, the more daring spirits will be prone to silence their inconvenient scruples by rushing into atheism, while the more timid may take refuge in Popery. "For to disown a Moral Governour, or to admit that any observances of superstition can release men from the duty of obeying Him, equally serves the purpose of those, who resolve to be as wicked as they dare, or as little virtuous as they can" (Bp. Hurd). Then too there is the glory of the saints and angels of God. How can frail man refuse to bow before the vision of their power and splendour, as they stand, the royal children of the King of kings, around the heavenly throne, deathless, radiant with love and joy and purity, exalted far above all human weakness and human sorrows? If the holy angels are "ministering spirits," why not the entire community of the Blessed? And what is to hinder us from casting ourselves at the feet of saint or angel, one’s own appointed guardian, or chosen helper? Let good George Herbert answer for us all. Oh glorious spirits, who after all your bands See the smooth face of God, without a frown, Or strict commands Where every one is king, and hath his crown, If not upon his head, yet in his hands: Not out of envy or maliciousness Do I forbear to crave your special aid. I would address My vows to thee most gladly, blessed Maid, And Mother of my God, in my distress: But now, (alas!) I dare not; for our King, Whom we do all jointly adore and praise, Bids no such thing: And where His pleasure no injunction lays, (‘Tis your own case) ye never move a wing. "All worship is prerogative, and a flower Of His rich crown, from whom lies no appeal At the last hour: Therefore we dare not from His garland steal, To make a posy for inferior power." In this sense also, as in many others, the warning of St. John applies: LITTLE CHILDREN, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS! The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.