OEB JER Chapter 19

The Breaking of the Flask Symbolical of the Shattering of the Nation

19 Then Jehovah commanded me to go and buy a potter’s earthenware flask, and, accompanied by a few elders of the people and a few priests, 2 to proceed to the Valley of the son of Hinnom by the entry of the Potsherd gate, and there announce the message with which He would charge me. 3 And the message was this: "Listen, ye kings of Judah, and ye citizens of Jerusalem, to what Jehovah is about to say: Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Mark this well. I will soon bring such a catastrophe upon this place as will make the ears of all who hear of it tingle; 4 because they have forsaken Me and denationalised this place by their burnt-offerings to other gods, strange alike to them and their forefathers; and the kings of Judah have filled this place with the blood of innocent men. 5 They have built Baal sanctuaries to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal, though this was no commandment of Mine – such a thing never entered into My mind. 6 Mark this, therefore: days are coming, saith Jehovah, when this place shall be no more called Topheth, nor the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; 7 and I will spill upon the ground the wisdom of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will lay them low by the sword of their enemies and by the hands of those that seek their life: their dead bodies I will give to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour. 8 And I will make this city a horror and a scorn; all that pass by her shall be filled with horror and with 9 scorn at all the blows that I shall rain upon her. I will drive them to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters: in the stress of the siege to which they shall be reduced by their enemies and by those that seek their life, they will devour one another.

10 Then thou shalt break the flask in the presence of the men that accompany thee, 11 and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: This is how I will shatter this people and this city, just as a potter’s jar is shattered beyond all possibility of repair; and Topheth shall be used as a burying-place for want of room (elsewhere). 12 This is how I will deal, saith Jehovah, with this place and its inhabitants – I will 13 make this city like Topheth; and the houses of Jerusalem and of the kings of Judah shall be, like the place of Topheth, defiled – all the houses, that is, from whose roofs the smoke of sacrifice has ascended to the host of heaven, and drink-offerings have been poured out to other gods.

Jeremiah Put in the Stocks for his Preaching

14 Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth to which Jehovah had sent him on his prophetic errand; and, taking his stand in the Temple court he thus addressed the assembled people: 15 "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, Mark this well; soon I will bring upon this city and upon all her villages the full measure of disaster with which I have threatened her, because they have stiffened their necks and refused to listen to My words."