Jeremiah 18 Study Notes
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18:1-2 Like the episode with the underwear (see note at 13:3-7), the trip to the potter’s house provided Jeremiah with a symbolic action message. Pottery making was common in the ancient Near East. Potters commonly used a wheel, turned by foot, as they shaped a lump of clay with their hands. The vessel was then fired in a kiln to make it hard.
18:3-4 The jar that the potter was working on was flawed, but how or why this happened is not stated.
18:5-6 The Lord was the potter, and Israel (later the nations as well) were the clay.
18:7-10 The lesson of the potter illustrates God’s grace for all who will repent and turn back to him. Both alternatives are given: God threatened to uproot, tear down, and destroy Judah, but he promised to build and plant others (cp. 1:10). God never changes his character, nature, or being (Nm 23:19), but he changes in his actions toward humans when they change their response to him.
18:11 The Lord used the same word for about to bring harm to you that he had used for “potter,” or “one forming [harm] against you.” The word choice was deliberate so Judah would grasp the connection.
galah
| Hebrew pronunciation | [gah LAH] |
| CSB translation | uncover, exile |
| Uses in Jeremiah | 27 |
| Uses in the OT | 185 |
| Focus passage | Jeremiah 18:7,18 |
Galah in several conjugations means remove (Is 22:8). It denotes depart (1Sm 4:21) and especially go into exile (Is 5:13). Galah indicates uncover, and uncovering ears (Jb 33:16) involves instructing (Jb 36:15), informing (1Sm 9:15), or telling (1Sm 20:2). Active participles suggest captives (Am 6:7). Passive participles convey uncovered (Nm 24:4) or distributed (Est 3:14). Causative verbs signify drive out (2Kg 17:11), exile (Am 1:6), or deport (2Kg 15:29). Reflexive-passives include uncover oneself (Gn 9:21) and show off (Pr 18:2). Passive-reflexives mean be exposed (Ex 20:26) or revealed (1Sm 3:7) and reveal oneself (Gn 35:7). Intensive verbs imply expose (Lv 20:18), strip (Is 57:8), strip off (Jb 41:13), flaunt (Ezk 23:18), or betray (Is 16:3). One opens eyes (Nm 22:31) or presents cases (Jr 11:20). “Uncovering nakedness” entails sexual intercourse (Lv 18:6) or violate another’s intimacy (Lv 20:11). The intensive passive participle connotes open (Pr 27:5).
18:12 It’s hopeless is also found in 2:25. Jack Lundbom explains, “There is no hope for the nation, not because Yahweh [the Lord] is set in his ways but because the people are set in theirs.” The people’s stubborn hearts are also mentioned in 3:17; 5:23; 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 13:10; 16:12; 23:17.
18:13 God called on the nations to verify that Judah had done a most horrible thing by defecting from him. On virgin Israel, see note at 14:17.
18:14 Nature is a lot more dependable and constant than Judah had been.
18:15 Idols make people stumble on the good paths and misdirect them onto bad paths. See 6:16.
18:16 Judah had become a land of horror and an object of scorn, or of “hissing” or “whistling.” This was the ultimate expression in the Near Eastern “loss of face.” People would make a hissing sound at a guilty person and shake their heads in scorn and disbelief.
18:17 The east wind was the hot wind or sirocco from the desert (4:11; 13:24; Hs 13:15), the same direction from which Babylon would come. Instead of the Aaronic benediction of Nm 6:24-26 with the Lord smiling on Judah, he had turned his back—a universal symbol of rejection (Hs 5:15).
18:18 The people foolishly believed that divine revelations would continue and life would go on as usual despite Jeremiah’s gloomy predictions.
18:19-23 This is another of Jeremiah’s “confessions” (see note at 4:19-22). His accusers said, “Come, let’s denounce him” (18:18), or literally, “Let us smite him with the tongue.” Jeremiah charged his opponents with the following: (1) paying “no attention to all his words” (v. 18), (2) digging a pit for him (vv. 20,22), (3) hiding snares for his feet (v. 22), and (4) planning to kill him (v. 23).