191 Thus says the Lord , "Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar , and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests . 2 "Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom e , which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate , and proclaim there the words that I tell you, 3 and say , 'Hear the word of the Lord , O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem : thus says the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel , "Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place , at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle . 4 "Because e they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods , that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known , and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal , a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind ; 6 therefore , behold , days are coming ," declares the Lord , "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom e , but rather e the valley of Slaughter . 7 "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 hand of those who seek their life ; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth . 8 "I will also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing ; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters . 9 "I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters , and they will eat one another's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them."'
10 "Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany e you 11 and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts , "Just so will I break this people and this city , even as one breaks a potter's vessel , which cannot e again be repaired ; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial . 12 "This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants ," declares the Lord , "so as to make this city like Topheth . 13 "The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth , because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods .""'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 19:1-13
Commentary on Jeremiah 19:1-9
(Read Jeremiah 19:1-9)
The prophet must give notice of ruin coming upon Judah and Jerusalem. Both rulers and ruled must attend to it. That place which holiness made the joy of the whole earth, sin made the reproach and shame of the whole earth. There is no fleeing from God's justice, but by fleeing to his mercy.
Commentary on Jeremiah 19:10-15
(Read Jeremiah 19:10-15)
The potter's vessel, after it is hardened, can never be pieced again when it is broken. And as the bottle was broken, so shall Judah and Jerusalem be broken by the Chaldeans. No human hand can repair it; but if they return to the Lord he will heal. As they filled Tophet with the slain sacrificed to their idols, so will God fill the whole city with the slain that shall fall as sacrifices to his justice. Whatever men may think, God will appear as terrible against sin and sinners as the Scriptures state; nor shall the unbelief of men make his promise or his threatenings of no effect. The obstinacy of sinners in sinful ways, is their own fault; if they are deaf to the word of God, it is because they have stopped their ears. We have need to pray that God, by his grace, would deliver us from hardness of heart, and contempt of his word and commandments.