Jeremiah 19 Study Notes

19:1 The Lord told Jeremiah to buy a potter’s clay jar as his next symbolic action. This was probably a narrow-necked water jar (Hb baqbuq). In v. 7, “I will spoil” (Hb baqqotih, “to empty out, cancel, spoil”) is a wordplay on “jar.”

19:2 Along with some elders, Jeremiah was told to go to Ben Hinnom Valley (later Gehenna; see note at 7:31) near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. This gate, south of the Jerusalem wall, was the gate through which broken pottery and other trash were transported to the city dump. The Ben Hinnom Valley is the modern Wadi er-Rababi. It runs along the western side of Jerusalem toward the south where it joins the Wadi Kidron on the southeastern corner of the city.

19:3 The ears of those who heard about the coming destruction will shudder or “tingle” (1Sm 3:11; 2Kg 21:12).

19:4 The blood of the innocent refers to the practice of offering children as burnt offerings to Baal or Molech (see note at 7:31). Human sacrifice is well attested in Canaan and Phoenicia, especially during the days of kings Ahaz (2Kg 16:3) and Manasseh (2Kg 21:6).

19:5 Judah had built high places to Baal in the Ben Hinnom Valley.

19:6-7 Though the plans of Judah and Jerusalem included expectation of God’s ongoing favor, in reality the covenant curses would be enacted (Dt 28:15). Topheth (see note at 7:31) and Ben Hinnom Valley would then be called Slaughter Valley to reflect God’s judgment. The corpses of Judah’s dead would remain unburied, a sign of judgment as birds of the sky and wild animals fed on their remains (7:33; 16:4; 34:20; Dt 28:26).

19:8 This verse repeats the essence of 18:16. See also 49:17.

19:9 So severe would be the conditions of the siege that Judah’s survivors would eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. This cannibalism is attested in the siege of Samaria (2Kg 6:26-29) and in the Babylonian siege in 587 BC (Lm 2:20; 4:10). According to Josephus in Wars of the Jews, this also happened in AD 70 when Jerusalem fell to the Romans.

19:10-11 As the prophet shattered the clay jar, he announced that God would shatter these people and this city as well. This was a symbolic act of warning to Judah. So many corpses would be gathered that there would be no place left to bury the dead but Topheth.

19:12-13 The city will become impure (ritually unclean) and a place where the Lord will no longer stay, like that place Topheth (see note at 7:31).

19:14-15 Judgment will fall on this city (Jerusalem) and its cities, meaning the rest of Judah’s cities.