Jeremiah 19: 1 – 15
Let me show you something
1 Thus says the LORD: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle. 4 “Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 8 I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.”?’ 10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place,” says the LORD, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”?’?” 14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where 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 says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’?”
I mean "Let Me Show You Something" is not me talking but God saying, "Let Me Show You Something". The prophet Jeremiah records our Holy Father Yahweh’s words in chapter 33:3, ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’.
In this scripture passage we learn that He wants to take us somewhere and show us something that is important for us to know.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 says, “9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
It's like a parent to a child when things aren't going right. You reach your hands out to that child to show them something that they don't see or realize. The key is that the child grabs your hand, so you can reveal to them the things they did not know. It's the same deal with God. If you hear him calling out to you and wanting to show you something, grab his hands and go without resistance. He will begin to show you things that will blow your mind away and you will become a changed man/woman for it.
Today we are going to see this lesson given by our Great and Holy God through Jeremiah to the leadership of Judah. In just a quick lesson the people will see their future outcome which is not very pleasant to consider.
Jeremiah was now called on to perform a prophetic ritual through which he would vividly depict what was to happen to Judah and Jerusalem. This too was in terms of a potter. He was to buy a potter’s earthenware vessel (the word ‘baqbuq’ indicates a jar with a long narrow neck and the Hebrew word is intended to sound like the gurgling of liquid as it leaves such a jar. To bring this out we could translate a ‘gurgle jar’) and in the presence of the elders of Judah, both priestly and lay, he was then to hurl it into the Valley of Hinnom where it would smash to pieces. The vessel represented Israel/Judah, bought by YHWH for a price when He redeemed them from Egypt, and the smashing indicated what YHWH was about to do to them, partly because of their antics in the Valley of Hinnom. He was about to hurl them away from Him and smash them in pieces.
1 Thus says the LORD: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you,
We have already seen in 18.1-4 that the potter’s workmanship represented ‘the house of Israel’, and so the purchase of the long necked, earthen ‘gurgle-jar’ represented YHWH’s ‘purchase’ of Israel/Judah out of the land of Egypt (Exodus 20.2). But unlike the other, this jar was hardened in its shape and could no longer be ‘made again’. It was what it was. Thus, if judged as unsatisfactory all that remained was to smash it. It was beyond reforming. The reason for it being termed a ‘gurgle-jar’ is brought out in verse 7 where YHWH was to ‘gurgle out’ the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem into the Valley of Hinnom.
Jeremiah was then to call on the elders of the people (their authoritative tribal leaders) and the elders of the priests (elsewhere called ‘the chiefs of the priests’ (2 Chronicles 36.14) or the ‘heads of the priests’ (Nehemiah 12.7)) and take them with him to the gate that led out of the city into the Valley of Hinnom. The fact that they were willing to go with him, even though they despised him, was an indication of the awe in which he was held, and the effectiveness of his presence. They were presumably aware of his previous enactments (e.g. 13.1-7) and no doubt wanted to know what he intended to do next, especially if it related to the Valley of Hinnom which had a certain reputation.
The Valley of the sons of Hinnom was well known both as a rubbish dump and as a center of Molech worship in which human sacrifices were offered (7.31). The Gate Harsith may well mean ‘the Sherd Gate’ This may have been either the Fountain Gate or the Dung Gate (see Nehemiah 3.13-15), or it may have been a small postern gate through which broken pottery (sherds) was cast into the Valley. And once Jeremiah had gathered the elders at the Sherd Gate he was to proclaim to them YHWH’s words prior to his visual display with the ‘gurgle-jar’.
3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.
He was to call on the elders (who were seen as representatives of the kings of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem) in YHWH’s Name as YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel, and inform them that He was bringing on ‘this place’ such evil that it would make the ears of men ‘tingle’ just to hear of it. A similar expression was used in 1 Samuel 3.11 connected with a prophecy related to the destruction of the earlier Sanctuary at Shiloh, thus it contained within it a veiled warning of what was to happen to the Temple. ‘This place’ strictly means the Valley of Hinnom/Topheth (see verse 6) but was intended also to include all Jerusalem.
4 “Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind),
The reason for YHWH’s judgment is now given. It was because they had forsaken Him and had ‘made foreign’ the place in which they were now standing, by burning incense in it to other gods, foreign gods which they had not known previously. And He adds that they had also filled the whole of Jerusalem with the blood of innocent people, and especially that they had built ‘the high places of Baal’ in order to ‘burn their sons in the fire’ for burnt offerings to Baal, something which YHWH had not only not commanded but was also something which He would not take on His lips or even think about it because it was so horrible.
Note the threefold progression from one increasing horror to another:
1). They had burned incense to strange gods, thus multiplying their previous idolatry.
2). They had shed innocent blood. This is revealed elsewhere as referring to the shedding of innocent blood throughout Jerusalem. The idea was of judicial murder, wholesale violence and severe persecution of the righteous.
3) They had built high places to Baal and had sacrificed their sons to him. This was a combination of 1). and 2). taken to even further excess. Note how ‘the high places of Topheth’ (7.31) have now become ‘the high places of Baal’. Baal (which means ‘lord’) was so central in their thinking that they involved his worship with that of other gods such as Moloch, intermingling the ideas.
‘Topheth’ may mean ‘the hearth’ indicating that it was a place of burning. The high places were erected there by the people for the purpose of offering their children as human sacrifices ‘in the fire’. This is stated to be against all that YHWH had taught. It was ‘beyond His imagination’. He had of course once called Abraham to sacrifice his son, but only so that He could teach the lesson that such sacrifice was not required (Genesis 22). Topheth was in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, an ancient valley known by that name as early as the time of Joshua (Joshua 15.8), probably after its owner. This valley was also used for the burning of refuse, something which eventually made it a symbol of God’s fiery judgment (Gehenna = ge hinnom = the valley of Hinnom). To look over the walls of Jerusalem at night at the refuse fires continually burning far below in the valley must have been an awesome sight and readily recalled God’s fiery judgment.
Here Jeremiah linked these human sacrifices with the worship of Baal (‘lord’), although in most of the Old Testament they are connected with the fierce Ammonite god named Molech (melech = king, altered to take the vowels of bosheth = shame) who was worshipped throughout the area (2 Kings 23.10). This suggests a certain syncretism between the two gods, which may well have taken place because Molech was called ‘Lord Melech’ = Baal Melech = ‘Lord King’.
6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
YHWH now warns that the day was coming when that particular valley would no longer be called Topheth, nor the valley of ben-Hinnom, but would be called the Valley of Slaughter, the idea being that it would subsequently become a graveyard for the huge number who would be slaughtered when the invasion came, and would also be the repository for many unburied corpses. It had been rendered unclean by the activities conducted there. It would therefore be made even more unclean because of the dead that it would contain.
7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.
Having in mind the symbolism of the narrow-necked gurgling jar (baqbuq) YHWH declares that He will ‘pour out’ (baqaq) the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, that is, He would reveal their counsel for what it was by pouring it out on Jerusalem’s rubbish heap, and on its place of slaughter and potential graveyard. And the consequence will be that YHWH will cause the badly guided people of Judah to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life, and this will be followed by their dead bodies being given as food to the vultures and the beastly scavengers (compare 7.33), always considered the most hideous of fates.
8 I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
So great will be the plagues that come on Jerusalem that the city will be ‘an astonishment’ and a total spectacle to be ‘hissed at’, so that all who pass by it will be astonished and hiss because of them. And this will be the result of the activity of YHWH, especially as described in the next verse.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.”?’
For in words based on YHWH’s curse as pronounced in Deuteronomy 28.53 on those who would be disobedient to His covenant, YHWH declares that He will cause His disobedient people to eat the flesh both of their sons and their daughters, and of their friends, because of the distress that will be caused to them by their enemies in the coming siege. Those who had sacrificed their sons and daughters to idols under the influence of idolatry would in a grotesque way now find themselves reaping the consequences of that behavior, their morality having been shaped and distorted by their earlier behavior.
The language is very bold, but it is not to be taken as really saying that YHWH will be directly responsible for the details of what will happen. The basis behind the words is rather that YHWH is taking responsibility for not stopping the approaching Babylonian siege, a siege in which conditions will become so bad, and hunger so dreadful, that the people themselves will indulge in cannibalism. But the actual working out of the invasion and the decisions and reaction of the defenders are to be their own responsibility and resulting from their own choice. YHWH is by no means justifying or encouraging cannibalism.
It is often asked why God brings about such terrible things, and it is important in this regard to bring out the difference between YHWH’s direct actions where He is directly responsible for everything that happens, and His ‘causing of events’ whereby He is the mainspring while the actual detailed outworking is the result of the activity of sinful man. There is a combination of sovereignty on God’s part and free will on man’s part. God encourages men to act, He does not encourage them to sin.
10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
Having declared YHWH’s words concerning what is to happen to Judah Jeremiah is now called on to illustrate it by breaking the bottle which represents Judah in the Valley of Slaughter in front of the eyes of the elders of the people and of the priests. With our mind’s eye we can see him dramatically standing on the slope of the valley and then, in full view of the watchers, hurling the earthenware jar on to the ground, shattering it into many fragments. Many of them would have seen this as a prophetic action which was in their eyes a deliberate attempt to guarantee the occurrence of what he had prophesied. But this would not have been Jeremiah’s view. He already knew that it was going to happen. Breaking the vessel was simply to be seen from his viewpoint as an outward enactment of it to bring home the impact of what was going to happen.
11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.
And having broken the bottle Jeremiah was to declare in the Name of YHWH, that YHWH would do the same thing to ‘this people and this city’. He would break them as one breaks a potter’s earthenware vessel which cannot be made whole again, in other words the disaster would be permanent and not just temporary, at least for the near future. (And while the remnant might arise from the chaos, the bottle would never again be fully restored). The result of the disaster that was coming would be that burials would take place in Topheth of such magnitude that they would be unable to find places where they could bury all who had died. The number of the dead were probably intended to be seen in terms of the number of tiny pieces into which the vessel had shattered.
12 Thus I will do to this place,” says the LORD, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”?’?”
Jeremiah then confirms in ‘the prophetic word of YHWH’ that what He had been saying about Topheth also applied Jerusalem itself, and to the houses in Jerusalem and to the kings’ houses. For they too were defiled as a result of the fact that on their flat roofs incense had been burned to all the host of Heaven, and because there they had poured out drink-offerings to other gods. Thus, they would share in the judgment coming on Topheth.
14 Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people,
Having spoken YHWH’s words to the elders in the Valley of Hinnom Jeremiah majestically returned to the court of YHWH’s house (the Temple), and there he took his stand and spoke to all the people. His actions had probably taken place during a regular feast and there would therefore be large crowds gathered.
15 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’?”
Speaking ‘in the Name of YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel’ he declared to all the people who were there what YHWH’s intentions were, and that was that He would bring on Jerusalem and on all its towns all the evil that He had pronounced against them. And this was because they had so obstinately refused to hear what He had to say. A ‘stiff neck’ indicated deliberate obstinacy and unresponsiveness.
