Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 19:10

Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

10 13. See introd. summary to section. Jer 19:10 links on to Jer 19:2. This and the next sub-section ( Jer 19:14 to Jer 20:6) are thought to be taken from the memoirs of Jeremiah by Baruch (see Intr. pp. xli. f.), as in them the prophet is spoken of in the third person.

“The people have the same custom of breaking a jar, when they wish to express their utmost detestation of any one. They come behind or near him, and smash the jar to atoms, thus imprecating upon him and his a like hopeless ruin.” Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 641.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The earthen bottle, which, Jer 19:1, he was commanded to carry with him into the valley of the son of Hinnom, (where he now was,) in the sight of the ancients of the priests, and of the people, the men who there were appointed to go with the prophet. This symbolical or sacramental teaching by signs was much in use by the prophets.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. break . . . bottleasymbolical action, explained in Jer19:11.

the menthe elders ofthe people and of the priests (Jer19:1; compare Jer 51:63;Jer 51:64).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Then shall thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee. The earthen bottle he was bid to get of the potter,

Jer 19:1; this he is ordered to break in pieces before the eyes of the ancients of and of the priests that went with him out Jerusalem to Tophet, as an emblem of the easy, sure, and utter destruction of Jerusalem; for nothing is more easily broken than an earthen vessel; and so easily was Jerusalem destroyed by the Chaldean army; nor can an earthen pot resist any force that is used against it; nor could the inhabitants of Jerusalem withstand the force of Nebuchadnezzar’s army; and an earthen vessel once broken cannot be put together again; a new one must be made; which was the case both of the city and temple; and which, upon the return from the captivity, were not repaired, but rebuilt.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

      10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,   11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.   12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:   13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.   14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD‘s house; and said to all the people,   15 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

      The message of wrath delivered in the foregoing verses is here enforced, that it might gain credit, two ways:–

      I. By a visible sign. The prophet was to take along with him an earthen bottle (v. 1), and, when he had delivered his message, he was to break the bottle to pieces (v. 10), and the same that were auditors of the sermon must be spectators of the sign. He had compared this people, in the chapter before, to the potter’s clay, which is easily marred in the making. But some might say, “It is past that with us; we have been made and hardened long since.” “And what though you be,” says he, “the potter’s vessel is as soon broken in the hand of any man as the vessel while it is soft clay is marred in the potter’s hand, and its case is, in this respect, much worse, that the vessel while it is soft clay, though it be marred, may be moulded again, but, after it is hardened, when it is broken it can never be pieced again.” Perhaps what they see will affect them more than what they only hear talk of; that is the intention of sacramental signs, and teaching by symbols was anciently used. In the explication of this sign he must inculcate what he had before said, with a further reference to the place where this was done, in the valley of Tophet. 1. As the bottle was easily, irresistibly, and irrecoverably broken by the Chaldean army, v. 11. They depended much upon the firmness of their constitution, and the fixedness of their courage, which they thought hardened them like a vessel of brass; but the prophet shows that all that did but harden them like a vessel of earth, which, though hard, is brittle and sooner broken than that which is not so hard. Though they were made vessels of honour, still they were vessels of earth, and so they shall be made to know if they dishonour God and themselves, and serve not the purposes for which they were made. It is God himself, who made them, that resolves to unmake them: I will break this people and this city, dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel; the doom of the heathen (Psa 2:9; Rev 2:27), but now Jerusalem’s doom, Isa. xxx. 14. A potter’s vessel, when once broken, cannot be made whole again, cannot be cured, so the word is. The ruin of Jerusalem shall be an utter ruin; no hand can repair it but his that broke it; and if they return to him, though he has torn, he will heal. 2. This was done in Tophet, to signify two things:– (1.) That Tophet should be the receptacle of the slain: They shall bury in Tophet till there be no place to bury any more there; they shall jostle for room to lay their dead, and a very little room will then serve those who, while they lived, laid house to house and field to field. Those that would be placed alone in the midst of the earth while they were above ground, and obliged all about them to keep their distance, must lie with the multitude when they are underground, for there are innumerable before them. (2.) That Tophet should be a resemblance of the whole city (v. 12): I will make this city as Tophet. As they had filled the valley of Tophet with the slain which they sacrificed to their idols, so God will fill the whole city with the slain that shall fall as sacrifices to the justice of God. We read (2 Kings xxiii. 10) of Josiah’s defiling Tophet, because it had been abused to idolatry, which he did (as should seem, v. 14) by filling it with the bones of men; and, whatever it was before, thenceforward it was looked upon as a detestable place. Dead carcases, and other filth of the city, were carried thither, and a fire was continually kept there for the burning of it. This was the posture of that valley when Jeremiah was sent thither to prophesy; and so execrable a place was it looked upon to be that, in the language of our Saviour’s time, hell was called, in allusion to it, Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom. “Now” (says God) “since that blessed reformation, when Tophet was defiled, did not proceed as it ought to have done, nor prove a thorough reformation, but though the idols in Tophet were abolished and made odious those in Jerusalem remained, therefore will I do with the city as Josiah did by Tophet, fill it with the bodies of men, and make it a heap of rubbish.” Even the houses of Jerusalem, and those of the kings of Judah, the royal palaces not excepted, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet (v. 13), and for the same reason, because of the idolatries that have been committed there; since they will not defile them by a reformation, God will defile them by a destruction, because upon the roofs of their houses they have burnt incense unto the host of heaven. The flat roofs of their houses were sometimes used by devout people as convenient places for prayer (Acts x. 9), and by idolaters they were used as high places, on which they sacrificed to strange gods, especially to the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, that there they might be so much nearer to them and have a clearer and fuller view of them. We read of those that worshipped the host of heaven upon the house-tops (Zeph. i. 5), and of altars on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, 2 Kings xxiii. 12. This sin upon the house-tops brought a curse into the house, which consumed it, and made it a dunghill like Tophet.

      II. By a solemn recognition and ratification of what he had said in the court of the Lord’s house,Jer 19:14; Jer 19:15. The prophet returned from Tophet to the temple, which stood upon the hill over that valley, and there confirmed, and probably repeated, what he had said in the valley of Tophet, for the benefit of those who had not heard it; what he had said he would stand to. Here, as often before, he both assures them of judgments coming upon them and assigns the cause of them, which was their sin. Both these are here put together in a little compass, with a reference to all that had gone before. 1. The accomplishment of the prophecies is here the judgment threatened. The people flattered themselves with a conceit that God would be better than his word, that the threatening was but to frighten them and keep them in awe a little; but the prophet tells them that they deceive themselves if they think so: For thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is able to make his words good, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the smaller cities that belong to Jerusalem the metropolis, all the evil that I have pronounced against it. Note, Whatever men may think to the contrary, the executions of Providence will fully answer the predictions of the word, and God will appear as terrible against sin and sinners as the scripture makes him; nor shall the unbelief of men make either his promises or his threatenings of no effect or of less effect than they were thought to be of. 2. The contempt of the prophecies is here the sin charged upon them, as the procuring cause of this judgment. It is because they have hardened their necks, and would not bow and bend them to the yoke of God’s commands, would not hear my words, that is, would not heed them and yield obedience to them. Note, The obstinacy of sinners in their sinful ways is altogether their own fault; if their necks are hardened, it is their own act and deed, they have hardened them; if they are deaf to the word of God, it is because they have stopped their own ears. We have need therefore to pray that God, by his grace, would deliver us from hardness of heart and contempt of his word and commandments.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Vs. 10-13: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BROKEN BOTTLE

1. Adding drama to the announcement, Jeremiah is to break the clay bottle before his audience – symbolizing the righteous judgment that the Divine and Sovereign Potter of Israel is to bring upon the vessel that is too marred to fullfil His original purpose for it, (vs. 10-11).

a. Having so flagrantly violated God’s high and holy purpose to make them vessels of honor, for His own glory, they are USELESS! (2Ti 2:20).

b. This breaking is to be done in sight of the elders who go with him to Topheth -the valley of the Son of Hinnom.

c. And Jeremiah is to declare that “Jehovah of hosts” will so break Judah and Jerusalem – shattering them beyond repair, (vs. 11; comp. Psa 2:9; Isa 30:12-14).

d. Topheth will be their burying-place until it overflows, (Jer 7:32-33).

2. Jerusalem and its inhabitants will become as Topheth – unclean, so, fit only for burningl (vs. 12-13; Psa 74:7; Psa 79:1-3; comp. Eze 7:21-22).

a. This will include the houses of kings and people, (Jer 52:12-13).

b. On their roof-tops they have burned incense to the astral deities – pouring out drink-offerings to foreign gods, (Jer 32:29; Zep 1:45; Jer 8:1-2; Jer 7:18; Jer 44:17-19).

c. It is surely worth noting that the Lord inevitably permitted His people to be brought into bondage by those nations whose gods they chose to worship!

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Jeremiah summoned witnesses, that the confirmation of the prophecy might be more fully attested to the people. With regard to the history of this transaction we may add, that he was first sent to the house of the potter, from whence he procured the bottle; he then went to Tophet, and there spoke against their impious and corrupt superstitions; and at last, to seal the prophecy, he broke the bottle in the presence of the witnesses whom he had brought with him. And we have said that it was necessary thus to deal with a people, not only ignorant and stupid, but, which is worse, perverse and obstinate. There was not only importance in the sign, that they might thence learn the doom of the city and of the whole land, but it was also a solemn sealing of the prophecy; and on this account he was commanded to break the vessel, even that he might show, by a visible act, the near approach of God’s vengeance, of which the Jews had no apprehension. It follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

B. The Symbolic Act and Its Interpretation Jer. 19:10-13

TRANSLATION

(10) Then you shall shatter the bottle in the presence of the men who are accompanying you (11) and you shall say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Like this I will break this people and this city as the potter might break a vessel which can no longer be repaired; and they shall bury in Topheth because there will be no room for burial. (12) Thus will I do to this place (oracle of the LORD) and to its inhabitants even making this city as Topheth. (13) The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall become unclean like this place of Topheth, even all the houses where they offered incense upon their roofs to all the host of heaven and poured out libations to other gods.

COMMENTS

The smashing of the bottle here reminds one of the practice current in Egypt where the names of enemy nations were written on pots or jars which were then smashed. The idea behind the practice in Egypt involved sympathetic magic. The smashing of the bottle was magically transferred to the nations whose names were written on the jar. There is of course no thought of sympathetic magic here. Rather this act is illustrative and confirmatory. The prophet wished to dramatically make his point that the nation would be smashed as easily as the brittle Palestinian pottery is smashed when it falls to the ground. Jer. 19:11 is based on Jer. 7:32. The words are absent in the ancient Greek version though they are appropriate here. When the nation is broken the dead will be so numerous that even the unclean site of Topheth in the valley of Hinnom would have to be used for a burial site. Furthermore the entire city would become as Topheth (Jer. 19:12), unclean by virtue of the bones of human sacrifices and by virtue of the official desecration of king Josiah (2Ki. 23:10). The houses of Jerusalem upon which incense was offered and libations poured out to pagan gods would be desecrated by the dead bodies which would fall in the city (Jer. 19:13). The roofs of buildings were flat and could be used for various purposes including religious exercises. Several passages make mention of the fact that idolatry was practiced upon the roofs of the houses (Jer. 32:29; 2Ki. 23:12; Zep. 1:5). Tablets have been found at Ras Shamra in Syria containing a ritual to be followed in making offerings to the heavenly bodies upon the housetops.[214]

[214] Freedman, op. cit., p. 134.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(10) Then shalt thou break the bottle . . .Those who heard the prophet and saw his act were not unfamiliar with the imagery. The words of Psa. 2:9 had portrayed the Messianic king as ruling over the nations, even as breaking them in pieces like a potters vessel. But it was a new and strange thing to hear these words applied to themselves, to see their own nation treated, not as the potters clay that could be remodelled, as in Jer. 18:1-6, either for a nobler, or, at least, for some serviceable use, but as the vessel which once broken could never be restored. Happily for Israel, there was a depth of Divine compassion which the parable failed to represent. The after-history showed that though, as far as that generation went, the punishment was final, and their existing polity could never be made whole again, there was yet hope for the nation. The things that were impossible with man were possible with God. The fragments of the broken vessel might be gathered from the heap of rubbish on which the prophet had flung them, and brought into a new shape, for uses less glorious indeed than that for which it had been originally designed, but far other than those of a mere vessel of dishonour.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

10. Then shall thou break the bottle The coming calamity is set forth by this vivid symbol. Jeremiah does this in the sight of the elders, in order to arrest their attention and open their ears to his words.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jer 19:10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

Ver. 10. Then shalt thou break the bottle. ] That the eyes of the bystanders and beholders may affect their hearts. Non alia ratio Sacramentorum est.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)