CHAPTER 19

Je 19:1–15. The Desolation of the Jews for Their Sins Foretold in the Valley of Hinnom; the Symbol of Breaking a Bottle.

Referred by Maurer, &c., to the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign.

1. bottle—Hebrew, bakuk, so called from the gurgling sound which it makes when being emptied.

ancients—elders. As witnesses of the symbolic action (Je 19:10; Is 8:1, 2), that the Jews might not afterwards plead ignorance of the prophecy. The seventy-two elders, composing the Sanhedrim, or Great Council, were taken partly from “the priests,” partly from the other tribes, that is, “the people,” the former presiding over spiritual matters, the latter over civil; the seventy-two represented the whole people.

2. valley of the son of Hinnom—or Tophet, south of Jerusalem, where human victims were offered, and children made to pass through the fire, in honor of Molech.

east gate—Margin, “sun gate,” sunrise being in the east. Maurer translates, the “potter’s gate.” Through it lay the road to the valley of Hinnom (Jos 15:8). The potters there formed vessels for the use of the temple, which was close by (compare Je 19:10, 14; Je 18:2; Zec 11:13). The same as “the water gate toward the east” (Ne 3:26; 12:37); so called from the brook Kedron. Calvin translates, as English Version and Margin. “It was monstrous perversity to tread the law under foot in so conspicuous a place, over which the sun daily rising reminded them of the light of God’s law.”

3. The scene of their guilt is chosen as the scene of the denunciation against them.

kings—the king and queen (Je 13:18); or including the king’s counsellors and governors under him.

tingle—as if struck by a thunder peal (1 Sa 3:11; 2 Ki 21:12).

4. (Is 65:11).

estranged this place—devoted it to the worship of strange gods: alienating a portion of the sacred city from God, the rightful Lord of the temple, city, and whole land.

nor their fathers—namely, the godly among them; their ungodly fathers God makes no account of.

blood of innocents—slain in honor of Molech (Je 7:31; Ps 106:37).

5. commanded not—nay, more, I commanded the opposite (Le 18:21; see Je 7:31, 32).

6. no more … Tophet—from Hebrew, toph, “drum”; for in sacrificing children to Molech drums were beaten to drown their cries. Thus the name indicated the joy of the people at the fancied propitiation of the god by this sacrifice; in antithesis to its joyless name subsequently.

valley of slaughter—It should be the scene of slaughter, no longer of children, but of men; not of “innocents” (Je 19:4), but of those who richly deserved their fate. The city could not be assailed without first occupying the valley of Hinnom, in which was the only fountain: hence arose the violent battle there.

7. make void the counsel—defeat their plans for repelling the enemy (2 Ch 32:1–4; Is 19:3). Or their schemes of getting help by having recourse to idols [Calvin].

in this place—The valley of Hinnom was to be the place of the Chaldean encampment; the very place where they looked for help from idols was to be the scene of their own slaughter.

8. (See on Je 18:16).

9. (De 28:53; La 4:10).

10. break … bottle—a symbolical action, explained in Je 19:11.

the men—the elders of the people and of the priests (Je 19:1; compare Je 51:63, 64).

11. as one breaketh a potters vessel—expressing God’s absolute sovereignty (Je 18:6; Ps 2:9; Is 30:14, Margin; La 4:2; Ro 9:20, 21).

cannot be made whole again—A broken potter’s vessel cannot be restored, but a new one may be made of the same material. So God raised a new Jewish seed, not identical with the destroyed rebels, but by substituting another generation in their stead [Grotius].

no place to bury—(Je 7:32).

12. make this city as Tophet—that is, as defiled with dead bodies as Tophet.

13. shall be defiled—with dead bodies (Je 19:12; 2 Ki 23:10).

because of all the houses—Rather, (explanatory of the previous “the houses … and … houses”), “even all the houses,” &c. [Calvin].

roofs—being flat, they were used as high places for sacrifices to the sun and planets (Je 32:29; 2 Ki 23:11, 12; Zep 1:5). The Nabateans, south and east of the Dead Sea, a nation most friendly to the Jews, according to Strabo, had the same usage.

14. court of the Lord’s house—near Tophet; the largest court, under the open air, where was the greatest crowd (2 Ch 20:5).

15. her towns—the suburban villages and towns near Jerusalem, such as Bethany.