Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 19:13

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

The broken pot (19:1-20:6)

In another acted parable Jeremiah, carrying an earthenware pot in his hand, took the leaders of Jerusalem to a place outside the city walls where old pottery was dumped. This was in the valley where the Judeans once sacrificed their children to Molech and carried out other pagan rites (19:1-2; see 7:30-34 and section, ‘Tophet and the Valley of Hinnom’).
Through their leaders, the people of Judah are told that in this valley, where they have killed their children, they themselves will be killed. The place had been named the Valley of Hinnom, but the prophet announces that in the future it will be called the Valley of Slaughter (3-6). When the Babylonians finally destroy Jerusalem, many Judeans will be slaughtered in this valley, while those who remain in the besieged city will be so near to starvation that they will eat their own children (7-9).
Jeremiah then smashed the pot, to symbolize God’s coming judgment on Jerusalem. The city will be smashed, destroyed. Tophet, which is already unclean through its association with idolatry, will become a dump for corpses. The defilement of Tophet will be the measure of Jerusalem’s defilement (10-13).
Having made his announcement at the site of the coming slaughter, Jeremiah returned to the temple, where he repeated the announcement of judgment (14-15). Pashhur, the chief officer of the temple, furious at Jeremiah’s words, arrested him, flogged him and imprisoned him for the night (20:1-2). But Jeremiah would not be silenced. He boldly announced that Pashhur himself would see the people slaughtered and the city plundered and destroyed. After that, Pashhur would be taken off to humiliating captivity in Babylon, where he would die (3-6).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 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 Tophet, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof, even making this city as Tophet: and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Tophet, even 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.”

“Thou shalt break the bottle” What a perfect symbol of what would happen to Israel! “Not by accident, but by design it was broken. God intended it; man accomplished it; it was completely shattered; it was irresistibly effected; it was useless for Israel to resist; and no ingenuity could repair the damage.”W. Harvey Jellie, Jeremiah, in Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary (New York: Funk and Wagnalls Company), p. 400.

Wiseman observed that “Because Jerusalem had made itself into a pagan altar, God made exactly that use out of them: (1) there was slaughter (Jeremiah 19:11); (2) burning (Jeremiah 19:12); and (3) offering up (Jeremiah 19:13).”The New Layman’s Bible Commentary, p. 828.

“Even all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven” The destruction was destined to fall upon the city as a whole, and included in the destruction would be all of the houses upon the roofs of which the worship of pagan gods had been observed by the children of Israel. “The rooftops were apparently the normal places for the worship of astral deities such as Astarte. Cuneiform texts from Ras Shamra included a ritual to be used when offerings were made on rooftops to astral deities and celestial luminaries.”R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah in the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, p. 112.

“In 2 Kings 21:5 and 2 Kings 23:12, we learn that Ahaz and Manasseh introduced this pagan cult in Judah, probably from Mesopotamia, where it was practiced from remote antiquity.”Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 671.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Because of all - literally, “with reference to all,” limiting the denunciation to those houses whose roofs had been defiled with altars.

Upon whose roofs they have burned incense - See 2 Kings 23:12, note.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

He describes, as I have said, more at large what he had briefly expressed, for he had spoken of the city; but as the belief of that was difficult, he now enumerates particulars, as though he had said, that Jerusalem was a wide city and splendidly built, for there were there many large and elegant houses, and the royal palaces, yet he says, that all these things would not prevent God to demolish the whole city. And this deserves particular notice, for we know that Satan dazzles our eyes whenever he suggests anything that gives a hope of defense, but what God threatens we think is vain, and as it were fabulous, or at least produces no effect on us. Since then so gross an hypocrisy prevailed in the hearts of the people, the Prophet rightly tried to shake off from them whatever might deceive them.

Hence he says, The houses of Jerusalem, etc. — these were many and splendid — and the houses of the kings of Judah, their palaces either within or without the city shall be as the place of Tophet; that is, no house shall be exempt from slaughter, and no palace shall protect its inhabitants. They shall be unclean, he says, that is, on account of dead bodies, for men slain would be found everywhere; and this is, as it is well known, often mentioned in Scripture as a pollution or defilement. With regard to all the houses; some read, “On account of all the houses,” and ל lamed, is often a causal preposition. But it seems rather to be taken here as explanation; and hence I render the words, With regard to all the houses, so that the Prophet speaks of all the houses in, which they made incense. ⁽²²²⁾ As then there was no house free from sacrilege, he says that God’s vengeance would penetrate into all houses without any exception.

He says also, On the roofs, with the view of condemning them for their effrontery; for they raised their baseness as a standard, that it might be seen at a distance. They indeed thought that God was delighted with such a service; but how came they to entertain such a foolish persuasion, except through their neglect and contempt of the law, and also through a mad presumption in giving more credit to their own fictions than to certain truth. The Prophet then justly condemns them, for they had cast off all shame, and went up to the roofs of their houses, that their doings might be more open. Then he mentions the whole host of heaven; and says further, that they had poured a libation to foreign gods. We see that many kinds of superstitions prevailed among the people; for he spoke of Baal in the singular number, he mentioned also Baalim, patrons, and he now adds, the whole host of heaven; that is, the sun, the moon, and all the stars.

We hence see that the Jews kept no limits as to their sacrileges, which is usually the case with all the ungodly; for as soon as men begin to turn aside from the pure and genuine worship of God, they sink into the lowest depths. It is then this wantonness that the Prophet now refers to, when he intimates that their various forms of worship were so increased, that they had devised as many gods as there are stars in heaven; which is similar to what is said elsewhere,

“According to the number of thy cities, O Judah, are thy gods,”
(Jeremiah 2:28; Jeremiah 11:13.)

(222) On account of all the houses,” is the Septuagint and the Targum; “all the houses,” is the Vulgate and the Syriac, being put in apposition with “the houses of Jerusalem,” etc.

The words which follow are literally, — “which they have burned incense on their roofs,” which we properly render in our language, “on whose roofs they have burned incense;” but the Welsh is literally the Hebrew, Y rhai yr arogldarthasant ar eu pennau, — “which they incensed on their roofs;” but “incensed” in this sense is not used. — Ed.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 19

Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle ( Jeremiah 19:1 ),

Take one of the bottles that the potter has made. Clay bottles.

and take the old men of the people, and of the priests; 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 19:1-2 ):

Now the valley of Hinnom runs along the south side of the city of Jerusalem and joins the Kidron valley right down at the base of the hill of Ophel, which was the city of David. And as you're standing on Mount Zion, as you look down into the valley to the south, you're looking down into the valley of Hinnom. And this is where the children of Israel had done so much of their pagan worship of the gods of the Canaanites and the people who inhabited the land before they came in. And so he is to go into this valley where all of these pagan rites were done by the people with this clay jar from the potter's house. "So call the ancient priests and the old men and gather them into the valley and I'll give you My word there. I'll tell you what to speak."

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 hears it, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken me ( Jeremiah 19:3-4 ),

The reason why the judgment's coming, "They've 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 they have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal [altars to Baal], to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings ( Jeremiah 19:4-5 ),

Now if you go over to Israel in the Museum of Natural History, they have a collection in there of these little representations of the god Baal. And they are many of them made of iron; some of them are made of stone. And as you look at them, their hands are always pointed upwards with their palms in. And they are little figurines that look somewhat human with little arms out like this and hands pointed up. Now what they would do there in the valley of Hinnom is that they would set these little irons representations of the god Baal in the fire until they were glowing red hot and then they would take their live little babies and place them in the glowing red hot arms of the little god Baal and burn them to death, as they would dance around and worship Baal.

Now this is the thing God is crying out against. These are the horrible things that God's people were doing. These were the horrible sacrileges that they were guilty of. And so God says, "They built also the high places to Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal."

which I commanded not, nor spoke, neither came it into my mind ( Jeremiah 19:5 ):

Now, God would never think of having a person make a live sacrifice of a child unto Him.

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. For I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them [here in this valley] to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss, because of all the plagues. 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 because of the straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you ( Jeremiah 19:6-10 ),

After you pronounce this, just break that clay bottle in their sight.

And say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, until there is no place to bury. Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: 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. So Jeremiah came 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, 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 19:11-15 ).

And so the people were just refusing to listen to the warnings of God.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Yahweh would also make Jerusalem a place of fire "like Topheth," and its people a sacrifice, as well, because all the people, from the ordinary citizens to the kings, had turned their houses into altars dedicated to pagan gods. The presence of corpses would make the city unclean. The people had offered burnt offerings and poured out drink offerings on their flat rooftops to astral deities and other idols (cf. Jeremiah 7:16-20; Jeremiah 32:29; Zephaniah 1:5). Archaeologists have discovered cuneiform texts at Ras Shamra (east of Cyprus on the west coast of Syria) that contain instructions for offering sacrifices to astral gods on flat rooftops. [Note: Harrison, Jeremiah and . . ., p. 112.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And the houses of Jerusalem,.... Where the common people dwelt:

and the houses of the kings of Judah; the palaces of the king, princes, and nobles of Judah, one as well as another:

shall be defiled os Tophet; as that was defiled with the bodies and bones of the slain, and with the faith of the city brought unto it; so the houses of great and small, high and low, should be defiled with the carcasses of the slain that should lie unburied there; their houses should be their graves, and they buried in the ruins of them: or, "the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled" s, with the idolatries after mentioned, shall be as Tophet, places of slaughter:

because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense to all the host of heaven; the roofs of houses with the Jews were built flat; and, as they sometimes used them for prayer to the God of heaven, as Peter did, Acts 10:9; idolaters used them to burn incense on to the sun, moon, and stars; to which they were nearer, and of which they could have a clearer view upon the house tops, and therefore chose them for this purpose; and so common was this sort of idolatry, that it was practised upon most, if not all, the houses in Jerusalem; see Zephaniah 1:5;

and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods; besides the God of Israel; to Baal, and other Heathen deities.

s הטמאים "quae pollutae sunt", Gataker.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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.

      The message of wrath delivered in the Jeremiah 19:1-9 is here enforced, that it might gain credit, two ways:--

      I. By a visible sign. The prophet was to take along with him an earthen bottle (Jeremiah 19:1; Jeremiah 19:1), and, when he had delivered his message, he was to break the bottle to pieces (Jeremiah 19:10; Jeremiah 19:10), and the same that were auditors of the sermon must be spectators of the sign. He had compared this people, in the chapter before, to the potter's clay, which is easily marred in the making. But some might say, "It is past that with us; we have been made and hardened long since." "And what though you be," says he, "the potter's vessel is as soon broken in the hand of any man as the vessel while it is soft clay is marred in the potter's hand, and its case is, in this respect, much worse, that the vessel while it is soft clay, though it be marred, may be moulded again, but, after it is hardened, when it is broken it can never be pieced again." Perhaps what they see will affect them more than what they only hear talk of; that is the intention of sacramental signs, and teaching by symbols was anciently used. In the explication of this sign he must inculcate what he had before said, with a further reference to the place where this was done, in the valley of Tophet. 1. As the bottle was easily, irresistibly, and irrecoverably broken by the Chaldean army, Jeremiah 19:11; Jeremiah 19:11. They depended much upon the firmness of their constitution, and the fixedness of their courage, which they thought hardened them like a vessel of brass; but the prophet shows that all that did but harden them like a vessel of earth, which, though hard, is brittle and sooner broken than that which is not so hard. Though they were made vessels of honour, still they were vessels of earth, and so they shall be made to know if they dishonour God and themselves, and serve not the purposes for which they were made. It is God himself, who made them, that resolves to unmake them: I will break this people and this city, dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel; the doom of the heathen (Psalms 2:9; Revelation 2:27), but now Jerusalem's doom, Isaiah 30:14. A potter's vessel, when once broken, cannot be made whole again, cannot be cured, so the word 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. 2. This was done in Tophet, to signify two things:-- (1.) That Tophet should be the receptacle of the slain: They shall bury in Tophet till there be no place to bury any more there; they shall jostle for room to lay their dead, and a very little room will then serve those who, while they lived, laid house to house and field to field. Those that would be placed alone in the midst of the earth while they were above ground, and obliged all about them to keep their distance, must lie with the multitude when they are underground, for there are innumerable before them. (2.) That Tophet should be a resemblance of the whole city (Jeremiah 19:12; Jeremiah 19:12): I will make this city as Tophet. As they had filled the valley of Tophet with the slain which they sacrificed to their idols, so God will fill the whole city with the slain that shall fall as sacrifices to the justice of God. We read (2 Kings 23:10) of Josiah's defiling Tophet, because it had been abused to idolatry, which he did (as should seem, Jeremiah 19:14; Jeremiah 19:14) by filling it with the bones of men; and, whatever it was before, thenceforward it was looked upon as a detestable place. Dead carcases, and other filth of the city, were carried thither, and a fire was continually kept there for the burning of it. This was the posture of that valley when Jeremiah was sent thither to prophesy; and so execrable a place was it looked upon to be that, in the language of our Saviour's time, hell was called, in allusion to it, Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom. "Now" (says God) "since that blessed reformation, when Tophet was defiled, did not proceed as it ought to have done, nor prove a thorough reformation, but though the idols in Tophet were abolished and made odious those in Jerusalem remained, therefore will I do with the city as Josiah did by Tophet, fill it with the bodies of men, and make it a heap of rubbish." Even the houses of Jerusalem, and those of the kings of Judah, the royal palaces not excepted, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet (Jeremiah 19:13; Jeremiah 19:13), and for the same reason, because of the idolatries that have been committed there; since they will not defile them by a reformation, God will defile them by a destruction, because upon the roofs of their houses they have burnt incense unto the host of heaven. The flat roofs of their houses were sometimes used by devout people as convenient places for prayer (Acts 10:9), and by idolaters they were used as high places, on which they sacrificed to strange gods, especially to the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, that there they might be so much nearer to them and have a clearer and fuller view of them. We read of those that worshipped the host of heaven upon the house-tops (Zephaniah 1:5), and of altars on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz,2 Kings 23:12. This sin upon the house-tops brought a curse into the house, which consumed it, and made it a dunghill like Tophet.

      II. By a solemn recognition and ratification of what he had said in the court of the Lord's house,Jeremiah 19:14; Jeremiah 19:15. The prophet returned from Tophet to the temple, which stood upon the hill over that valley, and there confirmed, and probably repeated, what he had said in the valley of Tophet, for the benefit of those who had not heard it; what he had said he would stand to. Here, as often before, he both assures them of judgments coming upon them and assigns the cause of them, which was their sin. Both these are here put together in a little compass, with a reference to all that had gone before. 1. The accomplishment of the prophecies is here the judgment threatened. The people flattered themselves with a conceit that God would be better than his word, that the threatening was but to frighten them and keep them in awe a little; but the prophet tells them that they deceive themselves if they think so: For thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is able to make his words good, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the smaller cities that belong to Jerusalem the metropolis, all the evil that I have pronounced against it. Note, Whatever men may think to the contrary, the executions of Providence will fully answer the predictions of the word, and God will appear as terrible against sin and sinners as the scripture makes him; nor shall the unbelief of men make either his promises or his threatenings of no effect or of less effect than they were thought to be of. 2. The contempt of the prophecies is here the sin charged upon them, as the procuring cause of this judgment. It is because they have hardened their necks, and would not bow and bend them to the yoke of God's commands, would not hear my words, that is, would not heed them and yield obedience to them. Note, The obstinacy of sinners in their sinful ways is altogether their own fault; if their necks are hardened, it is their own act and deed, they have hardened them; if they are deaf to the word of God, it is because they have stopped their own ears. We have need therefore to pray that God, by his grace, would deliver us from hardness of heart and contempt of his word and commandments.