10 "Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching,
10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
10 "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
10 "Say all this, and then smash the pot in front of the men who have come with you.
10 "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
10 "As these men watch you, Jeremiah, smash the jar you brought.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 19:10
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.