Jeremiah 19 commentary

The prophet must give notice of ruin coming upon Judah and Jerusalem. Both rulers and ruled must attend to it. That place which holiness made the joy of the whole earth, sin made the reproach and shame of the whole earth. There is no fleeing from God's justice, but by fleeing to his mercy.

The potter's vessel, after it is hardened, can never be pieced again when it is broken. And as the bottle was broken, so shall Judah and Jerusalem be broken by the Chaldeans. No human hand can repair it; but if they return to the Lord he will heal. As they filled Tophet with the slain sacrificed to their idols, so will God fill the whole city with the slain that shall fall as sacrifices to his justice. Whatever men may think, God will appear as terrible against sin and sinners as the Scriptures state; nor shall the unbelief of men make his promise or his threatenings of no effect. The obstinacy of sinners in sinful ways, is their own fault; if they are deaf to the word of God, it is because they have stopped their ears. We have need to pray that God, by his grace, would deliver us from hardness of heart, and contempt of his word and commandments.

We see that the Prophet was sent by God to shew the people that there was no firmness in that state of which hypocrites boasted; for God, who had favored the people of Israel with singular benefits, did no less retain them in his own possession than the potter. The Prophet had before shewn to the Jews that the potter formed his vessels as he pleased, and also, that when he had taken the clay and the vessel did not please him, he formed another. This prophecy has a similar import, yet it is different, as we shall presently see. The Prophet is here bidden to buy an earthen vessel of the potter, and at the meeting of the people to break it, that all might understand that they were like earthen vessels, and that being thus admonished of their fragility, they might no longer be proud, as though they possessed a firm and perpetual state of happiness.

The main object of the two visions is, however, the same: for the Jews thought that they were not subject to the common lot of men, because they had been chosen as a peculiar people; nor would they have gloried in vain with regard to that inestimable privilege, had there been a mutual agreement between God and them; but as they were covenant-breakers, their glorying was vain and foolish, in thinking that God was bound to them. For what right had they to claim this privilege? God indeed had adopted the whole race of Abraham, but there was a condition introduced,

“Walk before me and be perfect.” (Genesis 17:2)

When they all had become apostates, the covenant, as to them, was abolished. Then God could not have been called, as it were, to an account, as though he had violated his covenant with them, for he owed them nothing. They had become aliens; for through their wickedness and perfidy they had departed from him. God then designed to show how vain and how false was their confidence, when they said, “We are a holy race, we are God’s heritage;” because they had wholly departed from the covenant which God had made with their fathers.

But in the form adopted, as I have said, there is some difference. The Prophet had before introduced the potter to shew that there was no less power in God than in a mortal man, because we are before him as the clay, so that he can form and destroy his vessels as he pleases: but here the Prophet shews, that though the Jews had been formed for a time, and so formed as to have been like an excellent and a beautiful vessel, yet it was not a perpetual condition. And it is probable that when they had heard that God could, like the potter, form and re-form them, they had devised an evasion, according to what men usually do who deal sophistically with God, — “O, be it so, the potter can from the same clay form both a precious and a worthless vessel; but we are the precious vessel, and God has given us that form; for when he made a covenant with Abraham, he adorned him with this singular distinction: he afterwards brought our fathers out of Egypt, and then there was a better form added; and since at length he raised a kingdom among us with this promise, that the throne of David would be perpetual, it cannot possibly be otherwise than that we are to continue in our state.” Hence the Prophet expresses here more than in the former prophecy, that not only God had the power of a potter in forming his vessels, but that when the vessel is already formed and possesses great splendor, it can again be broken: he stated this lest the Jews should object by saying, that the state in which they were under David and his posterity would be perpetual. He says, “This is nothing: for the earthen vessel, though splendid and elegant in its form, can yet be broken in the third or fourth year no less than at the time when it is formed, and can be broken for ever,” according to what is afterwards implied by the similitude.

We shall proceed now to the words: he says, Go and get for thee an earthen vessel. The Rabbins think the name given to the vessel to be factitious, as the grammarians say, that is, made from its sound; for it appears to have been a flagon or a bottle; and as the bottle has a narrow mouth, it makes this sound, בקבק bakbuk, when we drink from it; and hence they think the name is derived. There is, however, no ambiguity as to the thing itself, that the word means a bottle, not only made of earth, but also either of glass or of wood. By adding the word חרש cheresh, he specifies what but בקבק, bekbek, is a general word. He then adds what is literally, From the elders, and interpreters think that the words “bring with thee” are to be understood; and as to the sense I agree with them, for we shall hereafter see, that in the presence of those who went with him he broke the vessel: it then follows that the elders here spoken of were taken by Jeremiah as his companions; but as מ mem, sometimes means “with,” as in the fifty-seventh chapter of Isaiah, (Isaiah 57:8)

“and made thee a covenant with them, מהם”

I take it to be of the same meaning here; and this is doubtless suitable here, for he was to go with the elders of the people and with the elders of the priests The literal rendering of this verse I conceive to be the following, —

“Thus saith Jehovah, go and get; bottle from the maker of earthenware, and some of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests.”

The מ, of, or from, before elders, implies a part; and it is the idiom of the language not to put in “some,” — “get (or take) from the elders,” etc. He was first to get the bottle, and then some of the elders. The Vulgate very strangely represents the Prophet as taking the bottle from the elders, omitting the ו, and as taking it from both elders! — Ed

And he adds, Enter into the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the east gate, rendered by some “of the earthen gate,” for which I see no reason; but I leave this to be examined by those who are more versed in the language. It is indeed thought that ש, shin, is changed here into ס, samech; but if we take the word as it is, it means “solar,” for חרס cheras, from which חרסית cherasit, is derived, signifies the sun; and it seems to have been called the solar gate by way of excellency, because it looked toward the rising sun. It appears that the valley of Hinnom was not to the east, but to the south of Jerusalem. See Joshua 15:8. The Keri and several copies read החרסית and it is given untranslated by the Septuagint the Syriac, and the Arabic. It is rendered “earthen” by the Vulgate, as though the ס, as Calvin mentions, is substituted for ש. In this case it might be rendered “the potsherd” — “at the entrance of the gate, The potsherd.” It was the gate, before which did lie all the broken vessels, and the dirt and filth from the Temple. For this reason it may be that the Targum renders it here, “the gate of the dunghill.”

Parkhurst, however, takes the word as it is in the text, and gives this version, “the gate of the burnings,” so called because of the practice of burning children in the valley opposite the gate. See Jeremiah 7:31. All these names would properly designate the south gate. — Ed. I do not yet oppose the idea of those who think that the Prophet alludes to חרש, cheresh, of which he had spoken, and that he calls it the east gate, though it was as it were an earthen gate; for the two letters ש, shin, and ס samech, as it is well known, are closely allied. Cry there, he says, the words which I shall speak to thee.

I come now to the subject: God bids his Prophet to get from the potter an earthen vessel, and to do so in the presence of the elders; for it was necessary to have witnesses in a matter so important; and as the public safety of the people was concerned, it was God’s purpose, lest the prophecy should be despised, that there should be present the gravest witnesses, suitable, and, as they say, authorized, or approved; and he calls them the elders of the people and of the priests; and no doubt they were chosen from a great number, even from among the priests who were chief. There were also Levites of the sons of Aaron; but there were then chief priests a large number; but, as they say, it was a turbulent rabble. They were chosen from those first orders who ruled the Church, and Jeremiah calls them the elders of the priests. There were also others chosen from the people who presided over the Church. And we know that there were two public functionaries, or, as they say, a twofold government: the priests were the rulers of the Church with regard to the law, so that their government was spiritual; there were also the elders of the people who managed civil affairs; but there were some things in which they ruled in common. We now then see what the Prophet meant by saying that he was bidden to call witnesses to see what is afterwards stated, and that they were taken partly from the priests and partly from the people.

He says; Enter into the valley of the son of Hinnom. This valley was in the suburbs, and was called תפת Tophet, as we shall hereafter see. It is thought that this name is derived from drums, because they did beat drums when infants were killed, lest their cry should excite any feeling of humanity. But, we shall again say something on the etymology of this word. In this valley they were accustomed to sacrifice and offer their children by casting them into the fire. Many indeed performed this in a different way, by purifying their children and carrying them round the fire, so that they felt only the flame and escaped unhurt. But there were those who wished to shew their zeal above others, whose ambition drove them farther, and they killed their children and then burnt them. But of this matter I have spoken elsewhere, and I shall now only briefly notice it. This opinion is not, what is commonly received; but it seems to me that it may be gathered from many parts of Scripture, that many killed their children, and that some only purified them. However this may have been, God justly abominated the sacrifice; for his will was that sacrifices should be offered only in one place. When any one offered a calf or a lamb in any other place than at Jerusalem, it was a spurious sacrifice; and the Jews ought to have followed what God had prescribed, and not to have done anything presumptuously, for obedience is ever better than any sacrifices.

But here there was a double crime; they left the Temple and sought to obtrude on God sacrifices against his expressed will; and then there was another crime still more atrocious, for they devoted their children to Baalim or to Baal, and not to the only true God. (I pass by now their slaughter and burning.) This then was the reason why the Prophet was commanded to go to this place. How detestable that service was to God appears dear from this, that the prophets give the name of hell to the valley of Hinnom, גיא הנם gia-enom. And we know that at the time of Christ it was the common name for hell; and whenever Christ speaks of Gehenna, he uses the word according to its common acceptation at that time. The word has indeed been corrupted by the Greeks, for it is properly גיא הנם gia-enom. But what does the word mean in the gospel? Hell itself; and whence was its origin? We indeed know how great and how incurable was the madness of those who gave themselves up to their own superstitions; for though the prophets strongly condemned the place, yet the people proceeded in their usual idolatry; it was therefore necessary to give the place a disgraceful name in order to render it more abominable.

It is now added, that the place was by the entrance of the east gate. As it was especially a celebrated gate, and as the sun, rising there, reminded them to behold the light which God had kindled for them in his law, it was a monstrous stupidity proudly to tread, as it were, under foot. the law of God in so renowned a place, and to profane his worship, as though they openly wished to shew that they esteemed as nothing what God had commanded. If any still think that there is an allusion to the word חרש cheresh, before used, I offer no opposition; that is, though this gate was indeed oriental, it was yet as it were an earthen gate.

He says, Cry there, or, proclaim with a clear voice, the words which I shall speak to thee. The Prophet no doubt said this expressly, in order to add more weight to his prophecy. He indeed did nothing but by God’s command; but as his authority was not acknowledged by the Jews, he here testifies for their sakes that he would say nothing but what God himself would command. This preface then confirmed the authority of his prophecy, so that the Jews might not reject what he might say, as though it came from Jeremiah himself.

But a general doctrine may be hence gathered, — that ministers are to bring forward nothing but what they have learnt from God himself. For though Jeremiah was a great man and endued with excellent gifts, yet he was not to bring one word or a syllable as from himself: how great then must be the presumption of those who seek to be superior to him by bringing their inventions, and at the same time demand to be deemed oracles? This passage confirms the doctrine of Peter, who says,

“He who speaks, let him speak the words of God.” (1 Peter 4:11)

He now adds, Hear ye the word of Jehovah. This is a confirmation of the former sentence. We hence see why it was said, Cry, or, with a clear voice proclaim, what I shall say to thee; it was, that they might know that he spake not according to his own ideas as a man, but that he was a celestial herald to proclaim what God commanded. Hear, he says, ye kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. We see how the Prophet did not spare even kings, according to what God had before commanded him, that he should act boldly and shew no respect of persons, (Jeremiah 1:8.) He then faithfully performed his office, as he did not flatter kings, and was not terrified by their dignity and power. But he addressed them first, and then the people, because they who had most grievously sinned, were made rightly to bear the first reproof. We hence see what the next passage means,

“Reprove mountains and chide hills,” (Micah 6:1)

and also this passage,

“I have set thee over nations and kingdoms,” (Jeremiah 1:10)

for heavenly truth ought to bring under subjection, as Paul says, everything high in the world, so that all the pride of man may be subdued. (2 Corinthians 10:5.) Kings indeed do very ill bear to be thus boldly treated; for they wish to be exempt from every law and to be free from every yoke. But if they now acknowledge not their subjection to God’s word, they must at last come before his tribunal; and then they shall find how perversely they have abused their power. As to teachers, they ought, small and great, to teach after the example of Jeremiah; they ought to reprove and to rebuke, when necessary, without shewing any respect of persons.

Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, and the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing an evil on this place, of which whosoever shall hear, tingle shall his ears. The prophetic word had more power when the Jews were brought to the very place where the event was exhibited, he might have said the same thing in the Temple or in the gate or in the palace of the king but his prophecy would not have been so effectual. We indeed know how much tardiness there is in men in general; but so great was then the obstinacy of the Jews, that however forcibly the truth might have been set forth, yet it was received with so much indifference, that it was neglected. God then intended to shew to them, as it were, the event itself. He says, Jehovah of hosts and the God of Israel; and he used these words, that they might know, as we have stated elsewhere, that they had to do with God, whose power is dreaded even by angels. And in order to shake off their foolish boasting, that they were the children of Abraham, — “God,” he says, “has sufficient power to chastise you, and the same is the God of Israel, whose name ye falsely and absurdly pretend to profess.” These subjects I only in a brief manner handle, because I have explained them more fully elsewhere.

He says that such a calamity was nigh that place as would make the ears to tingle: when there is a violent noise, our ears are stunned, and there is at the same time a certain tingling or ringing. When a man is killed, or when ten or twelve men are slain, there is a dreadful cry; but in a great tumult occasioned by men perishing, such is the noise that it stuns in a manner the ears, like that which proceeds from cataracts; for the violent noise of the Nile, they say, causes some degree of deafness. So also the Prophet says here, I am bringing, says God, a calamity on this place, which shall not only terrify those who will hear of it, but also render them quite astonished, so that their ears shall tingle, as is the case when there is a violent and dreadful noise. The cause follows —

Jeremiah 19:4-5

4. Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burnt incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

4. Propterea quod reliquerunt me et alienarunt locum hunc, et suffitum fecerunt in eo diis extraneis, quos non noverunt ipsi neque patres ipsorum, neque reges Jehudah; et implerunt locum hunc sanguine innocentium;

5. They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

5. Et extruxerunt excelsa (aedificarunt excelsa) ipsi Baal, ad comburendum filios suos igne in holocaustum ipsi Baal; quod non mandavi et non loquutus sum, et non ascendit super cor meum (vel, in cot meum.).

The reason is given why God would so severely deal with that place. We indeed know that hypocrites are ever ready with their answer; as soon as God threatens them, they bark and bring forward their evasions. The Prophet then shews that the judgment announced would be just, lest the Jews should pretend that it was extreme.

God first complains that he had been forsaken by them, because they had changed the worship which had been prescribed in his Law. And this is what ought to be carefully considered; for no one would have willingly confessed what Jeremiah charged upon them all; they would have said, — “We have not forsaken God, for we are the children of Abraham; but what we wish to do is to add to his worship; and why should it be deemed a reproach to us, if we are not content with our own simple form of worship, and add various other forms? and we worship God not only in the Temple, but also in this place; and further, we do not spare our own children.” But God shews by one expression that these were frivolous evasions; for he is not acknowledged except what he orders and commands is obediently received. Let us know, that God is forsaken as soon as men turn aside from his pure word, and that all are apostates who turn here and there, and do not follow what God approves.

Then he says that they had alienated the place. God had consecrated to himself the whole of Judea: he would not indeed have sacrifices offered to him in every place; but when the Jews worshipped him, as they were taught by Moses and the prophets, the whole land was as it were an altar and a temple to him. Then God complains that his authority in that part of the suburbs was taken away; as though he had said, — “The whole of Judea is my right and my jurisdiction, and Jerusalem is the royal palace in which I dwell; but ye, deluded beings, do by force take away my right and transfer it to another, as though one gave to a robber a place nigh a royal residence.” Thus God justly complains that they had alienated that place Perhaps the idea would be better expressed, if we were to say, “They had alienized the place,” or heathenized it, made it a heathen place. To alienate is to transfer a right or property from one to another. This was indeed true, for they separated as it were the place from God and transferred it to heathen deities. But the idea here seems to be, that they made the place heathenish: “and have heathenized this place.” “Alienated” is the Septuagint; “made it alien,” the Vulgate; “polluted,” the Syriac; and “defiled,” the Targum. — Ed.

But we must remember the reason, which immediately follows, because they had burned incense to Baal. They pretended, no doubt, the name of God; but yet it was a most preposterous superstition, when they worshipped inferior gods, as the Papists do at this day. The word Baal is sometimes used in the singular number by the prophets, and sometimes in the plural: but what is Baal? a patron. They were not content with one patron, but every one desired a patron for himself: hence under the words Baal and Baalim, the prophets characterized all fictition is modes of worship: when they worshipped God’s name, they blended the worship of patrons, who had not been made known to them; hence he adds, They have made incense in it to foreign gods. He afterwards says, that these foreign gods were such as neither they nor their fathers nor their kings knew. By saying that they were gods unknown to their fathers as well as to themselves and to their kings, he no doubt calls their attention to the doctrine of the law, and to the many certain proofs by which they had found that he was the only true God.

The Jews might have raised such an objection as the Papists do at this day, — that their modes of worship were not devised in their time, but that they had derived them from their ancestors. But God regarded as nothing those kings and the fathers, who had long before degenerated from true and genuine religion. It must be here observed, that true knowledge is connected with verity: for they who had first contrived new forms of worship, doubtless followed their own foolish imaginations; as when any one in the present day asks the Papists, why they weary themselves so much with their superstitions, good intention is ever their shield, — “O, we think that this is pleasing to God.” Therefore rightly does God here repudiate their inventions as wholly vain, for they possess nothing solid or permanent. At the same time, he by implication condemns the Jews for rejecting his law, whose authority had been established among them, so that they ought not to have entertained any doubt: for it would have been the greatest ingratitude to say, “We know not who introduced the Law!” God had indeed sanctioned the law by so many miracles, that it could not have been disputed; and they had also found by many evidences and proofs that he was the only brue God. tie had then been known by their fathers as well as by their kings, even by David and by all his godly successors. Hence their crime was exaggerated, by seeking for themselves foreign gods.

Now we also see how foolishly the Papists lay hold on this passage and similar passages, in order to commend their abominations by the pretext of antiquity, for vain are their disguises when they say, “O, we have been thus taught by our ancestors, and we have the authority of kings.” But the Prophet here does not speak of fathers indiscriminately; but by fathers he means those who had embraced the true and pure worship of God, as they had been taught by the law; and those kings were alone worthy of imitation, who had faithfully worshipped God according to the doctrine of the law: and thus he excludes all those fathers and kings who had degenerated from the law of Moses.

He at last adds, that that place was filled with the blood of innocents; for there they killed their children. And by this circumstance Jeremiah again amplifies the wickedness of the people; for they had not only despised God and his law, but also cruelly destroyed their innocent infants; and thus he proved them guilty not only of impiety and profaneness in vitiating the worship of God, but also of brutal and barbarous savageness in not sparing innocent blood.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou hast been pleased to shew to us the way in which we cannot err, provided we obey thee, — O grant, that we may render ourselves really teachable and ready to obey, and never undertake anything but what we know is approved by thee, nor turn aside on the right hand or on the left; but continue in that form of worship which thou hast prescribed to us in thy word, so that we may be able to bear witness, not only before the world, but before thee and the holy angels, that we obediently follow thee; and may we never blend anything of our own, but with submissive minds worship thee alone, and strive to render ourselves wholly subject to thee, until having at length rendered to thee due service through the whole course of our life, we shall reach that blessed rest which thy Son has procured for us by his own blood. — Amen.

Lecture Seventy-Fourth

Jeremiah 19:6

6. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

6. Propterea ecce dies veniunt, dicit Jehova, et non (hoc est, quibus non) vocabitur locus hic ampliusThopheth et vallis filii Hinnon, sed vallis interfectionis.

We saw in the last Lecture that the Prophet was sent by God’s bidding to the house of the potter, that he might there take an earthen bottle, carry it to Topher, and there explain the judgment of God, which was nigh at hand on account of his worship being violated. And he shewed why the Jews deserved reproof, even because they made incense to Baal, built groves and high places for themselves, and committed their sons and daughters to the fire: they were not only profane towards God, but also cruel towards innocent souls. Now, lest they pretended an excuse, he also added, that such a thing never came to God’s mind; and this is worthy of notice, because God by this one expression fulminates against all those inventions with which men delight themselves. As then there is no command, it follows that whatever is thus attempted is frivolous and useless.

He now denounces punishment, The days are coming, or shall come, in which this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. This seemed incredible to the Jews; for they had chosen that place for themselves to perform their superstitions: they thought therefore that a great part of their safety depended on their false worship.

As to the word Tophet, some think that it is to be taken simply for hell, or for eternal death; but this cannot by any means be admitted. More probable is their opinion who derive it from תף, teph, which means a drum; for they think that they did beat drums when infants were killed, that their cries might not be heard. But as this is only a conjecture, I know not whether another reason may be given. Some derive the word from יפה iphe, which signifies to be decorous or beautiful; and this etymology has something apparently in its favor. And perhaps it ought to be so taken in Job 17:6, where the holy man complains that he was become a proverb, and that he had been תפת Tophet, in the presence of all. There are indeed some who explain the word there as signifying something monstrous, and thus take it in a bad sense. But it seems rather to have been put in contrast with the former clause, — he had been a pleasant spectacle, but he was now become detestable. But they who take the word there as meaning hell, do so entirely without any reason, for that Job perished, seeing and knowing his perdition, as they say, is a forced view. I doubt not then but that he said, that he had been תפת Tophet; that is, an object of joy and of praise, but that he was then a sad and mournful spectacle. And it is certain that his name, תפת, Tophet, was given to the valley of Hinnom, because of the hilarity and joy which thence arose to the people; for they thought that God was propitious to them, when they so sedulously offered there their sacrifices, and yet they provoked his wrath. Then Tophet is to be taken in a good sense, when we regard the origin of the word. It is indeed true that in Isaiah 30:33, Tophet is to be taken for Gehenna; but it may be that the prophets had now begun so to execrate the place as to call hell indiscriminately Gehennon and Tophet; for the word Gehenna, as we have stated elsewhere, had its origin from the same place; it is indeed corrupted, but its origin is not doubtful. Now, the reason why the prophets and other faithful men called the place hell, was plainly this, — because the devil reigned in that place, when God’s worship became vitiated, and the whole of true religion was subverted; and especially, because superstition became so deeply fixed in the hearts of the people, that it could not be rooted up except by an extraordinary force and power.

However this may have been, we may conclude from this passage, as well as from other passages, that this name was given on account of the joy experienced there, even because they thought themselves altogether happy, as God was pacified towards them. But what does Jeremiah say? This place shall be no more called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. This seemed, as I have said, incredible to the Jews. But it however behoved the Prophet boldly to declare what was to be. It afterwards follows, —

Jeremiah 19:7

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 them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

7. Et exinaniam consilium Jehudah et Jerusalem in loco hoc, et prosternam eos in gladio coram inimicis ipsorum, et in manu quaerentium animam eorum, et ponam (dabo) cadaver eorum in cibum volucri coeli (hoc est, avibus coeli, est enallage) et bestiae (hoc est, bestiis) terrae.

This amplification further exasperated the minds of the people, — that they in vain trusted that this place would be to them a fortress. For, as we have already stated, they had persuaded themselves that it was abundantly sufficient to reconcile them with God, when they spared not their own children, and so zealously performed tlheir acts of worship. And hypocrites are commonly inflated with this presumption, for they prefer what pleases them to what pleases God; they regard not what the law bids, what God approves, but they adore their own inventions. Since then almost all the superstitious are filled with such a presumption, God here rightly declares, that he would make void their counsels The plain meaning is, I will frustrate all your plots and projects, whereby you think to escape and to secure yourselves, and make them as vain and empty as this earthen bottle is. — Gataker.

It is indeed certain that there is neither wisdom nor counsel in deluded men, while they thus devise new and frivolous modes of worship, for these are sheer mummeries. But we ought to observe what Paul says in Colossians 2:23, that all the fictions which men devise for themselves have in them some appearance of wisdom; for we know that wherever our imagination may carry us, we think ourselves wise, and that whatever God prescribes becomes insipid to us. Then the Prophet concedes “counsel,” though improperly, to frivolous and vain inventions, but not without reason, for experience teaches us sufficiently, that men ever take great delight in their superstitions, for they wish to subject God as it were to their own will. He then says, by way of concession, that the counsels of the whole people, especially of the city Jerusalem, would be made void, which was above others the teacher of errors, while yet the doctrine of the law ought especially to have prevailed there. And it may be also that there is an allusion to that word בקבק bekbek, which we have before seen, and which the Prophet will repeat again, for it means to make void or empty, though some think it to be a factitious word, because the sound, bekbek, is produced while the bottle is emptied. However this may be, the allusion is still sufficiently striking.

He afterwards adds, And I will lay them prostrate by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. In this second part, the Prophet intimates that the hatred entertained by their enemies towards the Jews would not be common. Wars are carried on sometimes in such a way, that the conquerors are satisfied with the spoils; but the Prophet intimates, that the cruelty of their enemies would be such, that they would seek the life of the whole people, and delight in slaughter; as though he had said, that they would be deadly enemies and altogether implacable. He will again repeat these words, and in the same sense.

He then adds, I will give your carcase to be meat to the birds of heaven, and to the beasts of the field The words are in the singular number — “The bird of heaven and the beast of the field.” — Ed. We have said elsewhere that it is deemed a punishment inflicted by heaven when the carcases of the dead remain unburied; for it is the last office of humanity to bury the dead. And this is a distinction which God would have to be between men and brute animals, for animals have not the honor of a burial. It has also been ever granted as a singular privilege to men to be buried, in order to set forth the hope of resurrection. When, therefore, a burial is denied, it is a proof of extreme dishonor. It has indeed often happened that the saints have been without a burial; but temporal punishment is ever turned to salvation to God’s children. As to the reprobate it must be deemed a judgment from God, when he casts away their carcases, as then there is no difference between them and animals. But I have treated this subject more fully elsewhere, and I shall not proceed with it now. It follows —

Jeremiah 19:8

8. And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

8. Et ponam urbem hanc in stuporem et sibilum; quisquis transibit per eam stupebit et sibilabit super omnen plugam ejus.

Jeremiah proceeds with his denunciation, and it was necessary for him to add this amplification, that he might penetrate into their hard and perverse hearts; for had he employed only a single sentence, or a common mode of speaking, in describing their calamity and the ruin of the city, they would not have been at all moved. Hence he enlarges on the subject, and advances with greater vehemence, and always speaks in the person of God, that his denunciation might have greater weight.

I will set, etc. Here is to be noticed a second reason; for it was not enough that a calamity should be denounced on the Jews, without adding this, that it was inflicted by God’s hand, and that thus the punishment of their wickedness was just. Then he says, I will set this city for an astonishment; for so in this place the word שמה sheme ought to be rendered, inasmuch as the reason afterwards follows, astonished shall be whosoever shall pass through it Blayney gives the same meaning, —

“And I will make this city an object of astonishment and of hissing.”

The Vulgate and the Syriac are the same; but the Septuagint and the Targum have “desolation” instead of “astonishment.” The word שמה signifies both, as in Hebrew the same word often expresses the cause and the effect: desolation is the cause, astonishment is the effect. The primary meaning is what is given mostly by the Septuagint and very seldom the secondary. The literal rendering of the sentence is, —

“And I will set this city for an astonishment and for a hissing.”

— Ed. He adds also, for a hissing, which is rather a mark of detestation than of scorn; yet the desolation of the whole land, and also the ruin of the holy city in which God had chosen an habitation for himself, might have filled all with terror, and ought justly to have done so. Whosoever, he says, shall pass through shall be astonished, and shall hiss on account of all her stroke; Plagam; the original word is considered to be in the plural number, and means strokes, stripes, scourges, but not plagues in the usual sense of the word — pestilences: it may be rendered smitings, or more properly, inflictions. It occurs three times in Deuteronomy 28:59, and is rendered plagues, but it ought to be smitings or inflictions; and so here, “on account of all her inflictions.” — Ed. for it was not to be a common calamity, but one in which might be seen God’s dreadful judgment. It follows —

Jeremiah 19:9

9. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

9. Et pascam eos carne filiorum suorum et carne filiarum suarum, et vir carnem proximi sui comedent (hoc est, singuli comedent carnem proximi sui) in afflictione et angustia, qua angent (vel, constringent) eos hostes ipsorum, et qui quaerent animam ipsorum.

Here the Prophet goes farther — that so atrocious would be the calamity, that even fathers and mothers would not abstain from their children, but would devour their flesh. This was indeed monstrous. It has sometimes happened that husbands, in a state of extreme despondency, have killed their wives and children, (anxious to exempt them from the lust of enemies,) or have kindled a fire in the midst of the forum, to cast their children and wives on the pile, and afterwards to die themselves; but it was more barbarous and brutal for a father to eat the flesh of his son. The Prophet then describes an unusual vengeance of God, which could not be classed among the calamities which usually happen to mankind.

We know that this was also done in the last siege of that city; for Josephus shews at large that mothers in a brutal manner slew their children, and that they so lay in wait for one another that they snatched at anything to eat. This was also an evidence of God’s dreadful vengeance.

But it was no wonder that God visited in such an awful manner the sins of those who had in such various ways, and for so long a time, provoked him; for if we compare the Jews with other nations, we shall find that their impiety, and ingratitude, and perverseness, exceeded the crimes of all nations. Then justly did God inflict such a punishment, which even at this day cannot be referred to without horror. The whole indeed is to be ascribed to his judgment; for it was he who fed The expression, according to the Hebrew, is, “I will cause them to eat.” What a punishment! Those who sacrificed their children to their idols were judicially brought to such straits as to be driven to eat their own children! God often punishes men in a way that corresponds with their sin. Through superstitious madness the Jews willingly offered their children in sacrifice to demons; and through the extreme cravings of hunger they were constrained to eat their own children! — Ed. the fathers with the flesh of their children; for as they had sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, as before stated, so it was necessary that the vengeance of God should be openly pointed out as by the finger. This was done when God imprinted marks on the bodies of children, which even the blind could not but perceive.

He adds, In the tribulation, The word is מצור, which means a siege, as well as tribulation or distress; and the former is the most suitable word here; and so it is rendered by the Targum and the early versions, except the Syriac. — Ed and straightness with which their enemies shall straiten them. We have said that those who had been long besieged, and were not able to resist, have been often reduced to the necessity to freeing their wives, or their children, or themselves, from dishonor; but to protract life in the manner here mentioned was altogether brutal. It follows —

Jeremiah 19:10

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

10. Et conteras lagenam in oculis virorum qui proficiscentur (vel, qui profecti fuerint) tecum.

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 —

Jeremiah 19:11

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.

11. Et dices ad eos, Sic dicit Jehova exercituum, Ita confringam populum hunc et urbem hanc, sicut quis confringit vas figuli, (hoc est, vas testaceum; vel, vas fragile, figulinum,) quod non poterit reparari amplius: et in Thopheth sepelientur; quia non erit locus ad sepeliendum (ad verbum, a non loco ad sepeliendum.)

The Prophet again confirms what he had shewn by the external symbol, and he does this by a new coremtrod from God. We know that signs are wholly useless when the word of God does not shine forth, as we see that superstitious men always practice many ceremonies, but they are only histrionic acts. But God never commanded his prophets to shew any sign without adding doctrine to it. This is what we see was done on this occasion; for Jeremiah spoke against impious superstitions, and as a celestial herald denounced punishment; he then sealed the prophecy by breaking the bottle, and a repetition of the doctrine follows again, Thus shalt thou say to them. This is not said of the Prophet’s companions, the pronoun is without an antecedent, but the whole reople are the persons referred to.

Thus saith Jehovah, I will so break this people and this city. He mentions the city, in which they thought they had an impregnable fortress, because the temple of God was there. But as they had profaned the temple and polluted the city with their crimes, Jeremiah reminded them that no confidence or hope was to be placed in the city. Then he says, As one breaks a vessel which cannot be repaired, etc. Here again he shows that they were wholly to perish, so as no more to rise again. We indeed know that sometimes those who are most grievously afflicted retain some remnants of strength, and are at length restored to their former vigor; but the Prophet shews that the approaching calamity would be wholly irremediable. It is no objection to say, that God a. fterwards restored the people, and that the city and the temple were rebuilt, for all this was nothing to the ungodly men of that age, as their memory wholly perished. A curse and God’s vengeance remained on the heads of those who thus continued obstinate in their wickedness; and hence those who returned from exile are said in Psalm 102:19, to have been a people created again, as though they rose up as new men,

“A people, who shall be created, shall praise the Lord.”

He then says, Buried shall they be, in Tophet, for there will be no place elsewhere This is evidently the meaning, and not that given in our version. See note in vol. 1, p. 415. — Ed. They had chosen that place at a time when they thought that they had some evidence of God’s favor, and a cause for joy; but he declares that that place would be filled with dead bodies, for they would flee in great numbers into the city, which afterwards would become so full of dead bodies that no room for burial could be found except in Topher. It follows —

Jeremiah 19:12

12. Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:

12. Sic faciam loco huic, dicit Jehova, et incolis ejus; et ad ponendum (et ponam) urbem hanc sicut Thopheth.

As he had said before that the valley would be the place of slaughter, that thence it might take its name, so now he declares the same as to the city; “As then Tophet shall be the valley of slaughter, so shall Jerusalem be.” The ellipsis in the last clause is what often occurs in Hebrew; it may be supplied in our language by that, —

“Thus will I do to this place, saith Jehovah, and to its inhabitants, and that to make this city like Tophet.”

The full sentence is, “and thus will I do to make,” etc. — Ed. They were no doubt kindled into rage (as we shall see in the next chapter) on hearing this prophecy; but yet God purposed, however irreclaimable and refractory they were, to let them know what was approaching, and though they did not believe the words of the Prophet, God touched and even deeply wounded their consciences, so that before the event came they were miserable. For the same purpose he adds —

Jeremiah 19:13

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.

13. Et erunt domus Hierusalem et domus regum Jehudah, sicut locus Thopheth immundae; ad omnes domos in quibus suffitum fecerunt super tecta eorum universae militiae coelorum, et libarunt libamen diis alienis.

He describes, as I have said, more at large what he had briefly expressed, for he had spoken of the city; but as the belief of that was difficult, he now enumerates particulars, as though he had said, that Jerusalem was a wide city and splendidly built, for there were there many large and elegant houses, and the royal palaces, yet he says, that all these things would not prevent God to demolish the whole city. And this deserves particular notice, for we know that Satan dazzles our eyes whenever he suggests anything that gives a hope of defense, but what God threatens we think is vain, and as it were fabulous, or at least produces no effect on us. Since then so gross an hypocrisy prevailed in the hearts of the people, the Prophet rightly tried to shake off from them whatever might deceive them.

Hence he says, The houses of Jerusalem, etc. — these were many and splendid — and the houses of the kings of Judah, their palaces either within or without the city shall be as the place of Tophet; that is, no house shall be exempt from slaughter, and no palace shall protect its inhabitants. They shall be unclean, he says, that is, on account of dead bodies, for men slain would be found everywhere; and this is, as it is well known, often mentioned in Scripture as a pollution or defilement. With regard to all the houses; some read, “On account of all the houses,” and ל lamed, is often a causal preposition. But it seems rather to be taken here as explanation; and hence I render the words, With regard to all the houses, so that the Prophet speaks of all the houses in, which they made incense. On account of all the houses,” is the Septuagint and the Targum; “all the houses,” is the Vulgate and the Syriac, being put in apposition with “the houses of Jerusalem,” etc.

The words which follow are literally, — “which they have burned incense on their roofs,” which we properly render in our language, “on whose roofs they have burned incense;” but the Welsh is literally the Hebrew, Y rhai yr arogldarthasant ar eu pennau, — “which they incensed on their roofs;” but “incensed” in this sense is not used. — Ed. As then there was no house free from sacrilege, he says that God’s vengeance would penetrate into all houses without any exception.

He says also, On the roofs, with the view of condemning them for their effrontery; for they raised their baseness as a standard, that it might be seen at a distance. They indeed thought that God was delighted with such a service; but how came they to entertain such a foolish persuasion, except through their neglect and contempt of the law, and also through a mad presumption in giving more credit to their own fictions than to certain truth. The Prophet then justly condemns them, for they had cast off all shame, and went up to the roofs of their houses, that their doings might be more open. Then he mentions the whole host of heaven; and says further, that they had poured a libation to foreign gods. We see that many kinds of superstitions prevailed among the people; for he spoke of Baal in the singular number, he mentioned also Baalim, patrons, and he now adds, the whole host of heaven; that is, the sun, the moon, and all the stars.

We hence see that the Jews kept no limits as to their sacrileges, which is usually the case with all the ungodly; for as soon as men begin to turn aside from the pure and genuine worship of God, they sink into the lowest depths. It is then this wantonness that the Prophet now refers to, when he intimates that their various forms of worship were so increased, that they had devised as many gods as there are stars in heaven; which is similar to what is said elsewhere,

“According to the number of thy cities, O Judah, are thy gods,” (Jeremiah 2:28; Jeremiah 11:13.)

Jeremiah 19:14-15

14. Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whether the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people,

14. Et venit (reversus est) Jeremias e Thopheth, quo miserat eum Jehova ad prophetandum; et stetit in atrio domus Jehovae, et dixit ad totum populum,

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.

15. Sic dicit Jehova exercituum, Deus Israel, Ecce ego adduco super urbem hanc et super omnes urbes ejus omne malum quod loquutus sum super eam, quia obduraverunt cervicem suam, ut non audirent sermones meos.

Jeremiah had been led to the very place, when he foretold the punishment, which was nigh at hand, on account of the superstitions of Tophet or of the valley of Hinnom. That his doctrine might be more efficacious, God intended that he should preach before the very altar and in the very valley, then well known for ungodly and false modes of worship. He says now that he went to the Temple and delivered there the same message. We hence learn how great must have been the stupidity and indifference of the people, for the repetition of the prophecy was not unnecessary. For as God knew that the Jews were extremely tardy and slow, he caused them to be warned twice by his servant, and in two different places.

Jeremiah, it is said, returned from Tophet, where God had sent him to prophesy; which last words were added, that we may not suppose that he without reason preached in the valley of Hinnom. God then commanded Jeremiah to denounce there, as it were in the very place, on the Jews their own destruction. And he stood, it is added, in the court of Jehovah’s house. As it was not lawful for the people to enter into the Temple, they usually assembled in the court, which was a part of the Temple. Then Jeremiah stood there; for he had to speak, not to a few, or in a corner, but to the whole people, and to make them witnesses of his prophecy. But we read here nothing new; for, as it has been stated, he was bidden to declare twice the same thing — the approaching calamity; and he was so bidden, because the Jews were so hardened, that they could not easily be moved. That he connects other cities with Jerusalem is not to be wondered at; he thereby intimates, that the whole land was guilty before God, and that therefore desolation was near at hand, as to all the towns and cities; as though he had said, “God will not spare Jerusalem, though it has been hitherto his sanctuary; but as lesser cities are not innocent, they shall also feel the hand of God together with Jerusalem.”

The reason is subjoined, Because they have hardened their neck. He again confirms what we have before observed, — that they had fallen, not through ignorance, but through perverseness; for they had learned with sufficient clearness from the law what was right, and they had also been often warned by the prophets. Hence then their wickedness appeared and their untameable spirit, for they had heard the sound doctrine of the law, and had many to warn them.

Now this passage teaches us that there is no pardon left for us, when we, as it were, avowedly reject the yoke of God. And this ought to be carefully noticed, for we see how difficult it is to subdue men, even when they confess that the word of God is what they hear. Since then there is in all mankind an innate perverseness, that hardly one in a hundred allows himself to be ruled by God’s word, it behoves us seriously to consider what is here said, — that they are unworthy of mercy who harden their neck. Hence it is said in Psalm 95:8,

“Harden not your hearts like your fathers.”

And a clearer definition follows, That they might not hear my words. Though there be hardness in all mortals, yet when the doctrine of salvation is made known and not received, then a greater impiety and pride shew themselves; for in that case, men hear God speaking, and yet rob him of his authority. It then follows, that the more clearly God makes known his truth, the less ground of excuse there is; for then especially comes to light the impiety of men, and their disdain seems incapable of being subdued.

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou hast been pleased to prescribe a rule for us, by which we may truly and purely worship thee, — O grant, that we may follow this plain rule, and never indulge our own imaginations, nor trifle with thee through our own fancies or through the foolish wisdom of our flesh, but continue in thy law, and in the doctrine which thine only-begotten Son, our Lord, has delivered to us, so that we may advance more and more in the knowledge of that glory, the foretaste of which thou givest us now, until we shall at length fully and perfectly enjoy it, when we shall be gathered into that celestial kingdom, which thy Son has procured for us by his own blood. — Amen.

A TRANSLATION OF

CALVIN’S VERSION OF

JEREMIAH

CHAPTERS 10—19

CHAPTER 10

1 Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaks to you, O house of Israel:

2 Thus saith Jehovah, — The way of the Gentiles learn not, And of the signs of heaven be not afraid, For fear them do the Gentiles:

3 Because the rites of the heathens are vanity, For a tree from the forest does one cut — The work of the craftsman’s hands by the ax;

4 With silver and gold they beautify it, With nails and hammer they make it fast, That it should not move;

5 As a palm, erect, but they speak not; And being raised, they are raised, for they cannot walk: Fear them not, for they cannot do evil, And to do good is not in their power. (2:14)

6 From no time has been found any Like thee, Jehovah; great art thou, And great is thy name in power.

7 Who should not fear thee, king of nations? For to thee this belongs; For among all the wise of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, From no time has there been one like thee. (2:28)

8 Even in this one thing they are foolish and fatuitous — The teaching of vanities the wood is:

9 Silver, extended, is from Tarshish brought, And gold from Ophas, — The work of the artificer and of the melter’s hands; Hyacinth and purple are their garments, The work of the wise, all of them.

10 But Jehovah is God, the truth, God, the life and the king of ages: Through his fury tremble will the earth, And the nations will not bear his wrath.

11 Thus shall ye say to them, — The gods who made not the heaven and the earth, Let them perish from the earth and from under heaven:

12 He who made the earth by his power, Who set in order the world by his wisdom, And by his understanding extended the heavens, —

13 At his voice there is abundance of waters in the heavens, And he makes vapors to ascend from the extremity of the earth; Lightnings he makes for rain, And brings the wind from his treasures. (2:31)

14 Foolish is every man through his knowledge, Ashamed is every maker of the graven image, For a falsehood is the molten image, And there is no breath in them.

15 Vanity they are, the work of illusions; At the time of their visitation they shall perish.

16 But not like them is the portion of Jacob, For the Creator of all things is he, And Israel is the rod of his inheritance; Jehovah of hosts is his name.

17 Gather from the land thy treasures Thou who dwellest in a fortress:

18 For thus saith Jehovah, — Behold! will cast out as with a sling The inhabitants of the land at this time, And I will straiten them, That they may find what they deserve.

19 Woe is me on account of my bruising! Full of pain is the smiting given to me! and I said, — Surely it is my stroke, and I will bear it:

20 My tent is pulled down, And all my cords are broken; My sons are gone from me, and there are none — No one to extend any more my tent, And to set up my curtains!

21 For infatuated are the pastors, And Jehovah have they not sought; Therefore have they not prospered, And all that was in their pastures has been destroyed.

22 A sound of rumor! lo, it comes, And a great tumult, from the land of the north, To make the cities of Judah a waste, The habitation of dragons!

23 I know Jehovah, That his way is not in the power of man, That it is not in man who walketh to guide his steps.

24 Chastise me, Jehovah, but only in moderation; Not in thy wrath, lest thou shouldest consume me:

25 Pour thy wrath on the nations, who know thee not, And on the families who have not called on thy name; For they have devoured Jacob, Yea, they have devoured and consumed him, And his tents have they laid waste.

CHAPTER 11

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, —

2 Hear ye the words of this covenant; and say ye to the men

3 of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, — Cursed

4 Is the man who hears not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day in which I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, — Hear ye my voice, and do according to all those things which I have commanded you; and ye shall be to me a people and I will

5 Be to you a God; that I may confirm the oath which I swear to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, according to what it is at this day. And I answered and said, Amen, Jehovah.

6 And Jehovah said to me, Proclaim these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, — Hear the words of this covenant and do them;

7 For protesting I protested to your fathers, In the day in which I brought them Out of the land of Egypt, to this day, Rising up early and protesting, and saying, —

8 “Hear ye my voice:” Yet they heard not, nor inclined their ear, But walked, every one of them, After the wickedness of his own evil heart: I have therefore brought on them All the words of this covenant, Which I commanded them to do, But they did them not. (2:84)

9 And Jehovah said to me, — Found out is a conspiracy, Among the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem:

10 Returned are they to the iniquities of their forefathers, Who refused to hear my words, But walked after foreign gods to serve them: Broken have the house of Israel and the house of Judah My covenant, which I made with their fathers.

11 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, — Behold, I will bring upon you an evil, From which ye shall not be able to escape; And they shall cry to me, but I will not hear them:

12 And go shall the cities of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, And cry to the gods to whom they have offered incense; But by saving they will not save them In the time of their affliction:

13 For according to the number of thy cities Have been thy gods, O Judah; And according to the number of streets of Jerusalem, Have ye set up altars for reproach — Altars to offer incense to Baal. (2:94)

14 And thou, pray not for this people, And raise not for them a cry and a prayer; For I will not hear them at the time When they shall cry to me for their distress.

15 What has my beloved to do in mine house, While she commits abomination with many? And the flesh of the sanctuary is taken from thee; For when thou didst evil, thou didst then glory. (2:102)

16 A green olive, fair in fruit and form, Hath Jehovah called thy name; At the noise of great tumult hath he kindled a fire on it, And broken down are its branches: (2:105)

17 For Jehovah of hosts who planted thee Hath spoken against thee an evil, For the wickedness of the house of Israel And of the house of Judah, Which they have done for themselves, To provoke me by offering incense to Baal.

18 Jehovah hath made me to know, and I knew it; Thou didst then discover to me their works.

19 But I was like a lamb or an ox Led to be slain; and I knew not That they meditated thoughts against me: “Let us spoil with wood his bread, And cut him off from the land of the living; And let his name be remembered no more.” (2:113)

20 Now, Jehovah of hosts, who judgest righteously, Who searchest the reins and the heart, Let me see thy vengeance on them, For to thee have I revealed my cause.

21 Therefore thus saith Jehovah To the men of Anathoth, who seek thy life and say, “Prophesy thou not in the name of Jehovah, That thou mayest not die by our hand;”

22 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, — Behold, I will visit them; Their young men shall die by the sword, Their sons and their daughters shall die by famine,

23 And there shall be no remnant of them; For I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, In the year of their visitation.

CHAPTER 12

1 Just art thou, Jehovah, though I contend with thee; Yet of judgments will I speak to thee: How long shall the way of the ungodly prosper? Secure are all they who by transgressing transgress. (2:121)

2 Thou hast planted them, they have even taken root; They have grown, they have even produced fruit: Nigh art thou in their mouth, But far from their reins.

3 But thou, Jehovah, knowest me, Thou seest me and hast tried my heart towards thee; Draw them forth as sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of destruction.

4 How long shall mourn the land, And the grass of every field wither For the wickedness of those who dwell in it? Consumed are the beasts and the birds, Because they have said, “He shall not see our end.” (2:129)

5 If with footmen thou hast run, And they have wearied thee, How canst thou contend with horsemen? In the land of peace thou hast trusted, How then canst thou do in the rising of Jordan?

6 Truly, even thy brethren and the house of thy father, Even these act perfidiously towards thee; Yea, they cry after thee with a loud voice: Trust them not, even when they speak good things to thee.

7 I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage; I have given up the darling of my soul Into the hand of her enemies!

8 My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest; It has sent forth its voice against me; Therefore have I hated it.

9 Is my heritage to me a speckled bird? Is there not a bird around over it? Come, gather yourselves all ye beasts of the field; Come to devour it. (2:140)

10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, They have trodden under foot my portion, They have made nay choice portion a desolate wilderness;

11 They have made it a desolation, It mourns to me, being desolate; Desolate is become the whole land; Though no one hath laid it to heart.

12 On all high places in the wilderness have come destroyers; For the sword of Jehovah hath devoured, From one end to the other end of the land; There is no peace to any flesh.

13 They have sown wheat And thorns have they reaped; An heritage have they got, but have not succeeded: Ashamed have they been of your produce, Through the burning of the wrath of Jehovah. (2:149)

14 Thus saith Jehovah, — As to all my evil neighbors, Who touch my heritage, Which I have inherited, even my people Israel, Behold, I will pluck them up from their land, And the house of Judah Will I pluck up from the midst of them.

15 And it shall be, after I draw them out, That I shall return and shew mercy to them, And will restore them, every one to his heritage, And every one to his own land.

16 And it shall be, that if by learning they will learn The ways of my people, To swear by my name, “Live does Jehovah,” As they taught my people to swear by Baal, They shall then be built up In the midst of my people:

17 But if they will not hear, I will then pluck up that nation, Plucking it up and destroying it, saith Jehovah.

CHAPTER 13

1 Thus saith Jehovah to me, — Go and get thee a linen belt, and put it on thy loins, and

2 In water set it not. So I got for me a belt, as Jehovah had

3 commanded, and put it on my loins. Then came the word of

4 Jehovah to me again, saying, — Take the belt which thou hast got, which is on thy loins, and rise, go to Euphrates and hide

5 It there in the hole of a rock. Then I went and hid it by

6 Euphrates, as Jehovah had ordered me. And it was, that at the end of many days, Jehovah said to me, Rise and go to Euphrates, and take thence the belt which I commanded thee

7 To hide there. So I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the belt from the place where I had hid it; and behold the belt

8 Was marred, and it was good for nothing. Then came the word of Jehovah to me, saying, —

9 Thus saith Jehovah, — In this way will I mar the excellency of Judah And the great excellency of Jerusalem:

10 This wicked people, who refuse to hear my words, Who walk in the wickedness of their own heart, And walk after foreign gods, That they may serve them and worship them, — Shall be even as this belt, Which is good for nothing.

11 For as the belt cleaves to the loins of man, So had I joined to me the whole house of Israel And the whole house of Judah, saith Jehovah, That they might be to me a people and a name, Yea, a praise and a glory; But they hearkened not.

12 Thou shalt also say this word to them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, — Every bottle shall be filled with wine. When they shall say to thee, Knowing do we not know, that every

13 Bottle shall be filled with wine? then shalt thou say to them, — Thus saith Jehovah, — Behold, I will fill with drunkenness All the inhabitants of this land, And all the kings who sit for David on his throne, The priests also and the prophets, And all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

14 And I will dash them, every one against his brother, The fathers also and the sons together, saith Jehovah: I will not spare, nor will I be propitious, Nor shew pity until I destroy them.

15 Hear ye and attend, be not lifted up, For Jehovah hath spoken:

16 Give to Jehovah your God the glory, Before he makes it to grow dark, And before your feet stumble at the dark mountains, And before he turns the light ye hope for Into the shadow of death, And makes it thick darkness. (2:179)

17 But if ye will not hear this, In secret will my soul mourn for pride, And weeping my eye will weep And run down with tears; For led captive is the flock of Jehovah.

18 Say to the king and to the queen, Be ye humbled, lie ye down, For come down from your heads Shall the crown of your glory.

19 The cities of the south are closed up, And there is no one to open them; For carried away has been all Judah, He has been carried away completely. (2:185)

20 Raise ye your eyes, And behold them who come from the north: Where is the flock, which has been given to thee, The sheep of thy glory?

21 What wilt thou say when he visits thee? But thou hast taught them to be leaders over thy head; Shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, As on a woman in travail?

22 But if thou wilt say in thine heart, “Why have these evils happened to me?” For the multitude of thine iniquity Are thy skirts discovered, And naked are made thy heels.

23 Can the Ethiop change his skin, And the panther his spots? Even so can ye do good, Who have been taught evil. (2:192)

24 I will therefore scatter them like the stubble, That passeth away by the wind of the desert.

25 This thy lot is the portion of thy measures From me, saith Jehovah, For thou hast forgotten me, And thou hast trusted in falsehood;

26 And I also will uncover thy skirts on thy face, That seen may be thy shame.

27 Thy adulteries and thy neighings, The thought of thy whoredom, On the mountains, in the field, have I seen, Even thine abominations; Woe to thee, Jerusalem! Wilt thou not at length be made clean? How long yet!

CHAPTER 14

1 The word which came to Jeremiah respecting the drought:

2 Mourned has Judah, And his gates have been weakened; They are become black on the ground, And the cry of Jerusalem has gone up: (2:205)

3 And their chiefs sent the common people to the waters; They came to the cisterns, they found no water; They returned with empty vessels; They were confounded and ashamed, And they covered their head:

4 For the chapt ground, as there was no rain in the land, Ashamed were the husbandmen, And they covered their head:

5 Moreover the hind brought forth young in the field, And forsook it, for there was no grass:

6 And the wild asses stood on the cliffs, They drew in wind like serpents; Fail did their eyes, for there was no grass. (2:209)

7 Though our iniquities testify against us, O Jehovah, Deal with us for thine own name’s sake; For multiplied have our defections, Against thee have we done wickedly,

8 Hope of Israel! Savior art thou In the time of trouble; Why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land? As a traveler, turning aside to pass the night?

9 Why shouldest thou be as a man terrified? As a strong man, who yet cannot save? Thou art in the midst of us, O Jehovah, And on us is thy name called, Forsake us not. (2:214)

10 Thus saith Jehovah of this people: As they have loved to wander, And have not restrained their feet, Therefore Jehovah has not been pleased with them; He will now remember their iniquities, And visit their sins.

11 Jehovah said also to me: Pray not for this people for their good:

12 When they fast I will not hear their cry; And when they offer a sacrifice and an oblation, I will not be pleased with them; For with the sword and with famine, And with pestilence, will I consume them.

13 And I said, Ah! Lord Jehovah, Behold, the prophets say to them, — “Ye shall not see the sword, And famine shall not be to you, Nay, sure peace will I give you in this place.”

14 Then said Jehovah to me, — Falsehood do the prophets prophesy in my name; I have not sent them nor commanded them, Nor have I spoken to them; A false vision and divination, Yea, vanity and the deceit of their own heart, Do they of themselves prophesy to you. (2:226)

15 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, of the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I have not sent them, and who say, The sword and the famine shall not be in this land, — By the sword and

16 Famine shall these prophets be consumed; and the people, to whom they have prophesied, shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem through the famine and the sword, and there will be none to bury them, — they, their wives: and their sons, and their daughters; and I will pour upon them their own wickedness.

17 Therefore shalt thou say to them this word, — Run down shall mine eyes with tears Day and night, and they shall not rest, For with a great breach is broken down The virgin, the daughter of my people; The stroke is very grievous:

18 If I go out to the field, behold the slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, behold the sorrowful with famine! For both the prophet, and the priest, Go round through the land, and know not what to do.

19 Repudiating hast thou repudiated Judah? Has thy soul abominated Sion? Why hast thou so smitten us, that we have no healing? We have looked for peace, and there is no good, And for time of healing, and behold terror!

20 We know, O Jehovah, our wickedness, And the iniquity of our fathers; For we have done wickedly against thee.

21 Reject not, for thy name’s sake, Overthrow not the throne of thy glory; Remember. render not void, Thy covenant with us. (2:240)

22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles, Who can cause it to rain? And can they give rain from heaven? Art not thou thyself, Jehovah, our God? And we have looked to thee, For thou hast done all these things.

CHAPTER 15 The beginning of this chapter is evidently connected with the end of the last, and ought not to have been separated. — Ed.

1 Then Jehovah said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, My soul would not be towards this people; Send them from my presence, and let them depart.

2 And it shall be, if they say to thee, “Whither shall we go forth?” Then shalt thou say to them, — Thus saith Jehovah, — They who are for death, to death, And they who are for the sword, to the sword, And they who are for the famine, to the famine, And they who are for captivity, to captivity:

3 And I will set over them four kinds, saith Jehovah, — The sword to kill, and the dogs to drag, And the bird of heaven, and the beast of the earth, To devour and to destroy:

4 And I will set them a vexation, To all the kingdoms of the earth, For Manasse, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, On account of what he did in Jerusalem.

5 For who will pity thee, O Jerusalem? And who will condole with thee? And who will turn aside To inquire of thy welfare?

6 Thou hast forsaken me, saith Jehovah; Backward hast thou gone; I will therefore stretch my hand against thee, And I will destroy thee; I am wearied with repenting:

7 And I will fan them with a fan Through all the gates of the earth; I have bereaved, I destroyed my people; From their own ways they have not returned.

8 Multiplied have their widows to me Above the sand of the sea; I brought to them, on the troop of youths, A waster at mid-day; And I cast on them suddenly A tumult and terrors.

9 Weakened did she become who had born seven, Expire did her soul, Go down did her sun while it was yet day, Confounded has she been and ashamed: And the remainder of them to the sword will I give, Before their enemies, saith Jehovah. (2:266)

10 Wo to me, my mother! That thou hast born me a man of strife, And a man of contention to the whole land: I have not lent on usury, And they have not on usury lent to me; Yet every one curses me.

11 And Jehovah said, — Surely thy latter end shall be well; Surely I will cause to meet thee the enemy, In the time of evil and in the time of distress. (2:273)

12 Shall iron break The iron from the north and the steel!

13 Thy wealth and thy treasures To plunder will I give, Not in exchange, but for all thy wickedness, And for all thy counsels:

14 And I will make thee to pass to the enemy Into a land which thou knowest not; For a fire is kindled in my wrath, On you it shall burn.

15 Thou knowest, O Jehovah, Remember me and visit me, And avenge me on my persecutors, Lest thou shouldest take me away By protracting thy wrath: Know that for thee have I borne reproach. (2:280)

16 Found were thy words, and I did eat them; And thy word was my joy and the gladness of my heart; For called on me was thy name, O Jehovah, the God of hosts.

17 I sat not in the assembly of mockers, Nor exulted on account of thy hand; I sat apart, for with indignation Hast thou filled me.

18 Why is my pain strong, and my stroke incurable, And refuses to be healed? Wilt thou be to me As the deception of unfaithful waters?

19 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, — If thou wilt be turned, then I will turn thee, That thou mayest stand before me; And if thou separatest the precious from the worthless, As my mouth shalt thou be: Let them turn to thee, but turn not thou to them.

20 I have even made thee to this people A wall of brass, fortified; They shall therefore fight against thee, But over thee they shall not prevail; For with thee am I to save thee, And to deliver thee, saith Jehovah:

21 Yea, I will save thee from the hand of the wicked, And deliver thee from the hand of the strong. (2:300)

CHAPTER 16

1 Then came the word of Jehovah to me, saying, —

2 Take not to thee a wife, And have no sons and daughters in this place:

3 For thus saith Jehovah, — As to the sons and daughters, born in this place, And as to the mothers who shall bear them, And as to the fathers, who shall beget them in this land —

4 With deaths of sicknesses shall they die, They shall not be lamented nor buried; As dung on the face of the earth shall they be; With the sword also and the famine shall they be consumed, And their carcasses shall be for meat To the birds of heaven, and to the beasts of the earth. (2:305)

5 For thus saith Jehovah, — Enter not the house of mourning Nor go to lament, nor be moved for them; For I have taken away my peace From this people, saith Jehovah, My kindness also and mercies:

6 And die shall they, great and small, in this land; They shall not be buried, Nor shall any lament for them nor cut themselves, Nor shall baldness be made for them;

7 And they shall not for them smite the hand, To console them for the dead; Nor shall they drink to them the cup of consolations, For their father or for their mother. (2:310)

8 The house of feasting also enter not, To sit with them to eat and to drink;

9 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, — Behold, I will take away from this place Before your eyes and in your days, The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 And it shall be, when thou declarest to this people All these words, that they will say to thee, — “Why has Jehovah spoken against us All this great evil? And what is our iniquity? and what is our sin? Which we have wickedly done against Jehovah, our God.”

11 Then thou shalt say to them, — Because your fathers forsook me, saith Jehovah: For they went after foreign gods, And served them and bowed down to them, And me they forsook, and my law they did not keep;

12 And worse are ye become than your fathers; For, behold, ye have walked, every one of you, After the wickedness of his own evil heart, So as not to hearken to me.

13 I will therefore cast you out of this land, Into a land which ye have not known, nor your fathers, And there shall ye serve foreign gods, day and night; For I will shew you no favor.

14 Therefore, behold, the days will come, saith Jehovah, When it shall be no more said, Live does Jehovah, Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt:

15 But, Live does Jehovah, who has brought up The children of Israel, from the land of the north, And from all the lands to which he had driven them; For I will restore them to the land Which I gave to their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith Jehovah; And they shall fish them; And afterwards I will send for many hunters, And they shall hunt them from every mountain, And from every hill and holes of rocks:

17 For mine eyes are on all their ways; They are not hid from my face, Nor are their iniquities hid from mine eyes: <div sID=

CHAPTER 19

Jr 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 (Jr 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 Jr 19:10, 14; Jr 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 (Jr 13:18); or including the king's counsellors and governors under him.

tingle--as if struck by a thunder peal (1Sa 3:11; 2Ki 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 (Jr 7:31; Psa 106:37).

5. commanded not--nay, more, I commanded the opposite (Le 18:21; see Jr 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" (Jr 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 (2Ch 32:1-4; Is 19:3; 22:9, 11). 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 Jr 18:16).

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

10. break ... bottle--a symbolical action, explained in Jr 19:11.

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

11. as one breaketh a potter's vessel--expressing God's absolute sovereignty (Jr 18:6; Psa 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--(Jr 7:32).

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

13. shall be defiled--with dead bodies (Jr 19:12; 2Ki 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 (Jr 32:29; 2Ki 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 (2Ch 20:5).

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

Go and get a potter's earthen bottle - This discourse was also delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim. Under the type of breaking a potter's earthen bottle or jug, Jeremiah shows his enemies that the word of the Lord should stand, that Jerusalem should be taken and sacked, and they all carried into captivity.

Ancients of the priests - The chiefs of the twenty-four classes which David had established. See 1Chr 24:4.

Estranged this place - Ye have devoted my temple to a widely different purpose from that for which it was erected.

Offerings unto Baal - A general name for all the popular idols; Baal, Moloch, Ashtaroth, etc.

I will make void the counsel of Judah - Probably this refers to some determination made to proclaim themselves independent, and pay no more tribute to the Chaldeans.

To be meat for the fowls - See on Jer 7:33 (note).

I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons - This was literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans. This also the prophet might have had in view.

Even so will I break this people and this city - The breaking of the bottle was the symbolical representation of the destruction of the city and of the state.

That cannot be made whole again - This seems to refer rather to the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, than to what was done by the Chaldeans. Jerusalem was healed after 70 years: but nearly 1800 years have elapsed since Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Romans; and it was then so broken, that it could not be made whole again.

And even make this city as Tophet - A place of slaughter and destruction.

Then came Jeremiah from Tophet - He had probably gone to the valley of Hinnom, and there repeated the discourse which he had a little before delivered to the chief priests and elders.

Because they have hardened their necks - A metaphor taken from unruly and unbroken oxen, who resist the yoke, break and run away with their gears. So this people had broken and destroyed the yoke of the law.

This place - Either this city, or this valley, which they had turned to an use quite contrary to the end for which God gave it them.

To burn - This and the following verse, contain another great sin of this people, with the punishment which God proportions to it. The sin in the general was idolatry, but a most barbarous species of it, mentioned also chap.7:31 32:35, where it is said, they made their sons and their daughters pass thro' the fire to Molech; the place where they did it is called Tophet, ver.19:6, of which also mention is made, Isa 30:33. Baal and Molech, signify the same thing; Baal signifies a Lord, Molech a King. Both Baal and Molech seem common names to all idols.

In this place - In this place, among others, I will make void all the counsels that the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, have taken to escape my righteous judgments.

As Tophet - That is, a place of slaughter and burials.

Then - Jeremiah had now dispatched the errand upon which God had sent him to Tophet, coming back by God's direction, he stands in the court, which was common to all people, where the most might hear.

1 THus saith the LORD, Go and get a potters earthen bottle , and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests .

Criticks dispute the figure and fashion of this bottle, vid. (the English Annotations, and Mr. Pool's Latin Synopsis) but that is not much material, for Gods design was only to shew the fragility of this people, how easily he could break them, and how certainly he would break them in pieces.

For the more publick notice of this typical action, Ieremy is commanded to take for witnesses, some of the gravest of the people, and of the Priests, whether they were members of the San[illegible: 1 letter]edrim, (which was made up of those two sorts) or not, the Scripture saith not.

2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom , which is by the entry of the east-gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee .

We shall hereafter hear why God commanded Ieremiah to go thither, rather then to another place, to break this earthen pot. This valley was a place very near unto Hierusalem, of which one Hinnon was owner in Ioshuah's time, Ios. 15.8. and 18.16. the valley is in Scripture sometimes called Ge-hinnom, from whence came the Greek word Gehenna ▪ used by our Saviour for Hell, Matth. 5.22. [non-Latin text not transcribed], because of the hellish torments they there put their children to when they Sacrificed them, and of the hellish cryes they made.

In the Hebrew it is the Sun-gate, supposed to be so called, because the Sun riseth in the East. This valley is said to have lien very near to this gate; thither Ieremy is commanded to go, and there to proclaim the following words.

Marginal references: Heb. Sun-gate.

3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle .

That is a very great evil, it is an Hebrew way of expression, which we also find, 1 Sam. 3.11. 2 Kings 21.12. As a very great glaring light affects our eyes, and blindeth them, so a very great sound affecteth the ear, and makes it tingle, and for some time deaf: This God commandeth the Prophet to proclaim, as particularly directed to all, both high and low, as well the Kings of Iudah, as the inhabitant[illegible: 1 letter] of Ierusalem.

4 Because they have forsaken me , and have estranged this place , and have burnt incense in it unto other gods , whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents .

The Lawes, Statutes, and Ordinances which God had given them, to direct them both in their Religious Behavior towards him, and in their civil Conversations.

Either this City, or this Temple, (which stood very nigh to this valley,) or this particular valley, which they had turned to an use quite contrary to the end for which God gave it them;

for in it they had paid a religious homage to idols, strange idols which their Fathers knew not,

and had filled that place with the bloud of such as had not deserved death, either innocent men, or children, that they had there sacrificed to idols; of which he afterward speaketh more particularly.

Marginal references: Isa. 65.11. chap. 2.13, 17, 19. and 15.6. and 17.13.

5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal , which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind .

This and the following verse, contain another great sin of this people, with the punishment which God proportioneth to it. The sin in the general was Idolatry, but a most barbarous species of it, mentioned also chap. 7.31. and 32.35. where it is said, they made their Sons and their Daughters, pass through the fire to Molech; The place where they did it is called Tophet, verse 6. of which also mention is made, Isa. 30.33. chap. 7.31.32, 33. For the opening of this Text, as also of those other Texts that mention this Idolatry, we must open what is meant by Baal, Moloch, Tophet, and the valley of the son of Hinnom; There is no doubt but Baal, and Molech, or Moloch signifie the same thing; Baal signifieth a Lord, Molech a King: They ordinarily called their Idols by these names, as also Malcham, Zeph. 1.5. upon which account God would not be called Baal, Hos. 2.16. Though he was called Iehovah, and Elo[illegible: 1 letter]im, and Adonai, all which signified Lord, as Baal did. Both Baal and Molech seem common names to all Idols. There was more then one Idol in the house of Baal, 2 Kings 10.26. The Ammonites called their principal Idol Milcom and Molech, as appears from 1 Kings 11.5. 2 Kings 23.13. To this Idol they Sacrificed their children. It was a very ancient Idolatry as appeareth by the very early law of God against it, Lev. 20.3.4, 5. Some say it is derived from Saturn, whom they make contemporary with Debora and Barak, who to appease the Gods in an imminent danger sacrificed his Son: Others say it began in the time of Serug the Father of Nahor, of which we read, Gen. 11.20. and that it had its Original from the Devil, speaking out of the Belly of some dead persons, commanding this homage, possibly in imitation of God, who▪ Gen. 22.2. to try Abrahams Obedience commanded him to offer up Isaac upon the Mount Moriah. We must know there were other Sacrifices they offered to Baal, they burnt incense to Baal, 2 Kings 23.5. They offered sacrifices and burnt-offerings of beasts, 1 Kings 18.26. 2 Kings 10.24. only in some extraordinary straits to shew their great obedience to the Devil, they offered their children; what creature they Worshipped under this name is not certain, but very probable it was the Sun, from 2 Kings 23.5. or some superiour being, which they owned as their supream Lord and King, which they, some of them, mistook the Sun, Moon and Stars to be; they being glorious beings removed out of mens knowledge, so as they had not sufficient means to understand their Natures, might, considering their motions, and vast influence they had upon all other creatures, mistake them for animate and supream beings, to which as they paid other homages, (such as swearing by them, Zeph. 1.5. burning incense, offering beasts, praying to them,) so in imitation of the heathens, and in a pretence of high devotion, and homage in some special cases and straits, they offered their children. Some think they only made them go through the fire, but did not burn them, and indeed, so most of the Scriptures express this abominable idolatry, but some Scriptures speak it plain enough, that they actually burnt them, the Psalmist Psal. 106.37. saith They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood, which it could not have been by their childrens meerly passing through the fire, and it is laid to their charge, Ezek. 16.20, 21. Thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and those hast thou sacrificed to them to be devoured. 21. That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them. We read of the Idolatry of Ieroboam, who worshipped the true God, but by Calves set up at Dan and Bethel. Ahab exceeded this, bringing in the terminative worship of the creatures, worshipping the Sun, Moon and Stars, under the name of Baal; But the first in Iudah, of whom we read, that he made his Sons to pass through the fire, was Ahaz, the Father of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 10.3. he was followed by his Grandchild Manasseh, 2 Kings 21.6. Iosiah, the good Son of a bad Father, defiled the place where this abominable Idolatry was committed, 2 Kings 23.10. the place where they committed this horrible abomination was the Valley of the son of Hinnom, very near the City, and the particular place was called Tophet. There was an high place built for the Idol, and many think, that the name Tophet ariseth from their use of a Drum or Tabret, with which while the poor children were burning, they made great noises to drown the sound of the childrens yellings, though others think, the word Tophet originally signifies Hell, or the place of the damned, of which this place, both for the torments and roarings in it, was a lively representation; now of this barbarous and horrible Idolatry, God saith,

He commanded them not, neither came it into his mind. It was so far from it, that God had most severely forbid it, Lev. 20.2, 3, 4, 5. making it a capital crime for any to do it, and for any to conceal others that they knew did it; so that here is a M[illegible: 1 letter]iosis, less spoken then was true in the case, but possibly Gods expressing a thing of this nature, being an error in his Worship, under these soft termes, I commanded them not, neither did it come into my mind, giveth no small ground to considerate men to judge, that we must have a command from God, though not for every individual act of our Worship, nor for every circumstance of humane action, which we do in his Worship, yet for every specifical Religious Act, and for any thing whereby we pay an homage to God, it being indeed the most reasonable thing imaginable, that God should have the same priviledge, which every Prince or great man amongst men, claimeth as his right, to prescribe the acts, modes and methods for his own homage.

6 Therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter .

For this God by his Prophet threatneth, that this place antiently in Ioshua's time called the valley of the son of Hinnom, and more lately Tophet, from the noise of Drums and Tabrets there, whilst children were burning, should have a new name, and be called the Valley of Slaughter from the multitude of dead bodies, which upon the taking of the City should be slain, and thrown into this Valley. It was expounded chap. 7.32, 33. For they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place; And the carkasses of this people shall be meat for the sowls of the Heaven, and for the beasts of the Earth, and none shall fray them away.

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 them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

In this place amongst other places, I will make void all the counsels that the men of Iudah, and the inhabitants of Hierusalem, have taken to escape my righteous judgments. I will frustrate all their little arts and designs to avoid the dint. of my judgments. I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, so as there shall be no way of escape for them.

Marginal references: chap. 7.33. and 16.4. and 34.20.

8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing: every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss, because of all the plagues thereof .

This is no more then we met with before, chap. 18.16. and shall again meet with; mens honour and reputation is ordinarily very dear to them, it was especially to the Iewes, who valued themselves much upon the reputation their City and their Temple had, and the security they promised themselves from their right in the Holy City and Land. God tells them, he will make them as much a scorn and reproach, as ever they were for an honour or praise, as great a wonderment for the wrath and vengeance he would execute upon them, as they had been in their flourishing state for the mercies which he bestowed upon them.

Marginal references: chap. 18.16. and 49.13. and 50.13.

9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them .

These were the miserable effects or consequents of the Fa[illegible: 1 letter]mine, with which God had often before threatned them; the just fulfilling of Gods word threatned, Lev. 26.29. Deut. 28.43. and the accomplishment of which our Prophet hath recorded, Lam. 4.10.

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

The earthen bottle, which verse 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.

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 potters vessel, that cannot be made whole again , and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury .

A name ordinarily given to God, here very properly, to let them know that he said nothing with his Lips, but what he had power by his Hand to accomplish, being the Captain General of all the Armies of his Creatures.

God by ordering the Prophet to carry no other Vessel, but one of Earth, had a design upon the breaking of it, not only to shew them that he would bruise, wound, or indammage them greatly, but so destroy them, as there should be no present remedy. If a vessel of Brass, Silver, Gold, &c. be broken, it may be mended, but an earthen vessel if broken, cannot be made whole, see the like Isaiah 30.14.

He tells them that this Tophet, which they had made a place of barbarous slaughter for the children, kill'd for Idolatrous Sacrifices, should continue for a slaughter-house, but of another nature, even for them that had committed such wickedness in it, who should be slain there in such plenty, that they should want ground to bury dead carcasses in.

Marginal references: Heb. be healed ▪; chap. 7.32.

12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet .

That is a place of slaughter and burials, or a base, ignominious place, or where the noise of drums and trumpets, and cryings, and yellings shall be heard, as used to be in Tophet.

13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled as the places of Tophet , because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other Gods .

Under the Judaick Law, persons and places were defiled by touching dead bodies, or any unclean filthy thing; God threatneth in this sense to defile Tophet, as it was said before, it should be filled with dead bodies which should be buried, or lye unburied there. He sheweth that the aforementioned judgment of filling places with dead bodies, should not be restrained to Tophet in the valley of Hinnom, but reach to the dwelling houses in Hierusalem, both their Kings houses, and the meaner Subjects.

The provoking cause of which should be their Idolatry, which they had also brought into their dwelling houses, for they having flat roofs, had upon them, though not burnt children in sacrifice to Idols, yet poured out drink offerings to the Sun, Moon and Stars, and to other Idols.

Marginal references: 2 King. 23.12. chap. 32.29.; chap. 7.18.

14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesie, and he stood in the court of the LORDS house , and said to all the people.

Ieremiah had now dispatched the Errand upon which God had sent him to Tophet, coming back by Gods direction, he stands in the Court, which was common to all people, where the most might hear.

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 .

And assureth the people from God, that he would most certainly justifie all his words, and bring to pass all his threats against that City, and that they must thank themselves for it, for hardening their heart, so as all that he had said made no impression upon them, nor found any place with them.

Marginal references: chap. 17.23▪

Jer 19:1-13

The Broken Pitcher.- Jer 19:1 . "Thus said Jahveh: Go and buy a potter’s vessel, and take of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests, Jer 19:2 . And go forth into the valley of Benhinnom, which is before the gate Harsuth, and proclaim there the words which I shall speak unto thee, Jer 19:3 . And say: Hear the word of Jahveh, ye kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus hath said Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth his ears shall tingle. Jer 19:4 . Because they have forsaken me, and disowned this place, and burnt incense in it to other gods whom they knew not, they, and their fathers, and the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, Jer 19:5 . And have built high places for Baal, to burn their sons in the fire as burnt-offerings to Baal, which I have neither commanded nor spoken, nor came it into my heart. Jer 19:6 . Therefore, behold, days come, saith Jahve, that this place shall no longer be called Tophet and Valley of Benhinnom, but Valley of Slaughter. Jer 19:7 . And I make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of them that seek their lives, and give their carcases to be food for the fowls of the heaven and the beast of the earth. Jer 19:8 . And make this city a dismay and a scoffing; every one that passeth thereby shall be dismayed and hiss because of all her strokes; Jer 19:9 . And make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each shall eat his neighbour’s flesh in the siege and straitness wherewith their enemies and they that seek after their lives shall straiten them. - Jer 19:10. And break the pitcher before the eyes of the men that go with thee, Jer 19:11. And say to them: Thus hath Jahve of hosts said: Even so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh this potter’s vessel, that it cannot be made whole again; and in Tophet shall they bury them, because there is no room to bury. Jer 19:12. Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jahveh, and its inhabitants, to make this city as Tophet. Jer 19:13. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall become, as the place Tophet, unclean, all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense to the whole host of heaven and poured out drink-offerings to other gods."

The purpose for which Jeremiah was to buy the earthen jar is told in Jer 19:10, and the meaning of breaking it in the valley of Benhinnom is shown in Jer 19:11-13. בּקבּק, from בּקק, to pour out, is a jar with a narrow neck, so called from the sound heard when liquid is poured out of it, although the vessel was used for storing honey, 1Ki 14:3. The appellation יוצר, former of earthen vessels, i.e., potter, is given to denote the jar as one which, on being broken, would shiver into many fragments. Before "of the elders of the people" a verb seems to be awanting, for which cause many supply ולקחתּ (according to Jer 41:12; Jer 43:10, etc.), rightly so far as sense is concerned; but we are hardly entitled to assume a lacuna in the text. That assumption is opposed by the ו before מזּקני; for we cannot straightway presume that this ו was put in after the verb had dropped out of the text. In that case the whole word would have been restored. We have here rather, as Schnur. saw, a bold constructio praegnans, the verb "buy" being also joined in zeugma with "of the elders:" buy a jar and (take) certain of the elders; cf. similar, only less bold, zeugmatic constr. in Job 4:10; Job 10:12; Isa 58:5. "Elders of the priests," as in 2Ki 19:2, probably identical with the "princes (שׂרי) of the priests," 2Ch 36:14, are doubtless virtually the same as the "heads (ראשׁי) of the priests," Neh 12:7, the priests highest in esteem, not merely for their age, but also in virtue of their rank; just as the "elders of the people" were a permanent representation of the people, consisting of the heads of tribes, houses or septs, and families; cf. 1Ki 8:1-3, and my Bibl. Archäol. ii. S. 218. Jeremiah was to take elders of the people and of the priesthood, because it was most readily to be expected of them that the word of God to be proclaimed would find a hearing amongst them. As to the valley of Benhinnom, see on Jer 7:31. שׁער החרסוּת, not Sun-gate (after חרס, Job 9:7; Jdg 8:13), but Pottery or Sherd-gate, from חרס = חרשׂ, in rabbin. חרסית, potter’s clay. The Chet. חרסוּת is the ancient form, not the modern (Hitz.), for the Keri is adapted to the rabbinical form. The clause, "which is before the Harsuth-gate," is not meant to describe more particularly the locality, sufficiently well known in Jerusalem, but has reference to the act to be performed there. The name, gate of חרסוּת, which nowhere else occurs, points no doubt to the breaking to shivers of the jar. Hence we are rather to translate Sherd-gate than Pottery-gate, the name having probably arisen amongst the people from the broken fragments which lay about this gate. Comm. are not at one as to which of the known city gates is meant. Hitz. and Kimchi are wrong in thinking of a gate of the court of the temple - the southern one. The context demands one of the city gates, two of which led into the Benhinnom valley: the Spring-or Fountain-gate at the south-east corner, and the Dung-gate on the south-west side of Zion; see on Neh 3:13-15. One of these two must be meant, but which of them it cannot be decided. there Jeremiah is to cry aloud the words which follow, Jer 19:3-8, and which bear on the kings of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. "Kings" in the plural, as in Jer 13:13, because the matter concerned not the reigning king only, but his successors too, who had been guilty of the sins to be punished.

Jer 19:14-15

The Prophet Jeremiah and the Temple-Warden Pashur. - Jer 19:14. When Jeremiah, having performed the divine command, returned from Tophet to the city, he went into the court of the house of God and spoke to the people assembled there, v. 15: "Thus hath said Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I bring upon this city, and all its cities, all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they stiffened their necks not to hear my words." "All the people" is the people present in the court of the temple as distinguished from the men who had accompanied Jeremiah into the valley of Benhinnom (Jer 19:10). מבי, the א having dropped off, as in Jer 39:16; 1Ki 21:21, 1Ki 21:29; 2Sa 5:2, and often. "All its cities" are the towns that belonged to Jerusalem, were subject to it (Jer 34:1); in other words, the cities of Judah, Jer 1:15; Jer 9:10, etc. All the evil that I have pronounced against it, not merely in the valley of Benhinnom (Jer 19:3-13), but generally up till this time, by the mouth of Jeremiah. If we limit the reference of this view to the prophecy in Tophet, we must assume, with Näg., that Jeremiah repeated the substance of it here; and besides, that prophecy is not in keeping with "all its cities," inasmuch as it (Jer 19:3-13) deals with Jerusalem alone. Apparently Jeremiah must have said more than is written in the verse, and described the evil somewhat more closely; so that the new matter spoken by him here consists in the "Behold I bring," etc., i.e., in his forewarning them of the speedy fulfilment of the threatenings against Jerusalem and Judah, as was the case with the prophecy in the valley of Benhinnom, which also, Jer 19:3, begins with הנני מביא. On "they stiffened their necks," etc., cf. Jer 17:23; Jer 7:26.

The Desolation of Jerusalem. (b. c. 600.)

1 Thus saith the Lord , Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, 3 And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord , O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: 6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord , that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor 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 them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

The corruption of man having made it necessary that precept should be upon precept, and line upon line (so unapt are we to receive, and so very apt to let slip, the things of God), the grace of God has provided that there shall be, accordingly, precept upon precept, and line upon line, that those who are irreclaimable may be inexcusable. For this reason the prophet is here sent with a message to the same purport with what he had often delivered, but with some circumstances that might make it the more taken notice of, a thing which ministers should study, for a little circumstance may sometimes be a great advantage, and those that would win souls must be wise.

I. He must take of the elders and chief men, both in church and state, to be his auditors and witnesses to what he said—the ancients of the people and the ancients of the priests, the most eminent men both in the magistracy and in the ministry, that they might be faithful witnesses to record, as those Isa. viii. 2. It is strange that these great men should be at the beck of a poor prophet, and obey his summons to attend him out of the city, they know not whither and they knew not why. But, though the generality of the elders were disaffected to him, yet it is likely that there were some few among them who looked upon him as a prophet of the Lord, and would pay this respect to the heavenly vision. Note, Persons of rank and figure have an opportunity of honouring God, by a diligent attendance on the ministry of the word and other divine institutions; and they ought to think it an honour, and no disparagement to themselves, yea, though the circumstances be mean and despicable. It is certain that the greatest of men is less than the least of the ordinances of God.

II. He must go to the valley of the son of Hinnom, and deliver this message there; for the word of the Lord is not bound to any one place; as good a sermon may be preached in the valley of Tophet as in the gate of the temple. Christ preached on a mountain and out of a ship. This valley lay partly on the south side of Jerusalem, but the prophet's way to it was by the entry on the east gate—the sun gate (v. 2), so some render it, and suppose it to look not towards the sun-rising, but the noon sun—the potter's gate, so some. This sermon must be preached in that place, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, 1. Because there they had been guilty of the vilest of their idolatries, the sacrificing of their children to Moloch, a horrid piece of impiety, which the sight of the place might serve to remind them of and upbraid them with. 2. Because there they should feel the sorest of their calamities; there the greatest slaughter should be made among them; and, it being the common sink of the city, let them look upon it and see what a miserable spectacle this magnificent city would be when it should be all like the valley of Tophet. God bids him go thither, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, when thou comest thither; whereby it appears (as Mr. Gataker well observed) that God's messages were frequently not revealed to the prophets before the very instant of time wherein they were to deliver them.

III. He must give general notice of a general ruin now shortly coming upon Judah and Jerusalem, v. 3. He must, as those that make proclamation, begin with an Oyes: Hear you the word of the Lord, though it be a terrible word, for you may thank yourselves if it be so. Both rulers and ruled must attend to it, at their peril; the kings of Judah, the king and his sons, the king and his princes and privy-counsellors, must hear the word of the King of kings, for, high as they are, he is above them. The inhabitants of Jerusalem also must hear what God has to say to them. Both princes and people have contributed to the national guilt and must concur in the national repentance, or they will both share in the national ruin. Let them all know that the Lord of hosts, who is therefore able to do what he threatens, though he is the God of Israel, nay, because he is so, will therefore punish them in the first place for their iniquities (Amos iii. 2): He will bring evil upon this place (upon Judah and Jerusalem) so surprising, and so dreadful, that whosoever hears it, his ears shall tingle; whosoever hears the prediction of it, hears the report and representation of it, it shall make such an impression of terror upon him that he shall still think he hears it sounding in his ears and shall not be able to get it out of his mind. The ruin of Eli's house is thus described (1 Sam. iii. 11), and of Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxi. 12.

IV. He must plainly tell them what their sins were for which God had this controversy with them, v. 4, 5. They are charged with apostasy from God (They have forsaken me) and abuse of the privileges of the visible church, and which they had been dignified—They have estranged this place. Jerusalem (the holy city), the temple (the holy house), which was designed for the honour of God and the support of his kingdom among men, they had alienated from those purposes, and (as some render the word) they had strangely abused. They had so polluted both with their wickedness that God had disowned both, and abandoned them to ruin. He charges them with an affection for and the adoration of false gods, such as neither they nor their fathers have known, such as never had recommended themselves to their belief and esteem by any acts of power or goodness done for them or their ancestors, as that God had abundantly done whom they forsook; yet they took them at a venture for their gods; nay, being fond of change and novelty, they liked them the better for their being upstarts, and new fashions in religion were as grateful to their fancies as in other things. They also stand charged with murder, wilful murder, from malice prepense: They have filled this place with the blood of innocents. It was Manasseh's sin (2 Kings xxiv. 4), which the Lord would not pardon. Nay, as if idolatry and murder, committed separately, were not bad enough and affront enough to God and man, they have put them together, have consolidated them into one complicated crime, that of burning their children in the fire to Baal (v. 5), which was the most insolent defiance to all the laws both of natural and revealed religion that ever mankind was guilty of; and by it they openly declared that they loved their new gods better than ever they loved the true God, though they were such cruel task-masters that they required human sacrifices (inhuman I should call them), which the Lord Jehovah, whose all lives and souls are, never demanded from his worshippers; he never spoke of such a thing, nor came it into his mind. See ch. vii. 31.

V. He must endeavour to affect them with the greatness of the desolation that was coming upon them. He must tell them (as he had done before, ch. vii. 32) that this valley of the son of Hinnom shall acquire a new name, the valley of slaughter (v. 6), for (v. 7) multitudes shall fall there by the sword, when either they sally out upon the besiegers and are repulsed or attempt to make their escape and are seized: They shall fall before their enemies, who not only endeavour to make themselves masters of their houses and estates, but have such an implacable enmity to them that they seek their lives; they thirst after their blood, and, when they are dead, will not allow a cartel for the burying of the slain, but their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven and beasts of the earth. What a dismal place will the valley of Tophet be then! And as for those that remain within the city, and will not capitulate with the besiegers, they shall perish for want of food, when first they have eaten the flesh of their sons and daughters, and dearest friends, through the straitness wherewith their enemies shall straiten them, v. 9. This was threatened in the law as an instance of the extremity to which the judgments of God should reduce them (Lev. xxvi. 29, Deut. xxviii. 53) and was accomplished, Lam. iv. 10. And, lastly, the whole city shall be desolate, the houses laid in ashes, the inhabitants slain or taken prisoners; there shall be no resort to it, nor any thing in it but what looks rueful and horrid; so that every one that passes by shall be astonished (v. 8), as he had said before, ch. xviii. 16. That place which holiness had made the joy of the whole earth sin had made the reproach and shame of the whole earth.

VI. He must assure them that all their attempts to prevent and avoid this ruin, so long as they continued impenitent and unreformed, would be fruitless and vain (v. 7): I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem (of the princes and senators of Judah and Jerusalem) in this place, in the royal palace, which lay on the south side of the city, not far from the place where the prophet now stood. Note, There is no fleeing from God's justice but by fleeing to his mercy. Those that will not make good God's counsel, by humbling themselves under his mighty hand, shall find that God will make void their counsel and blast their projects, which they think ever so well concerted for their own preservation. There is no counsel or strength against the Lord.

The Desolation of Jerusalem. (b. c. 600.)

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 (Ps. ii. 9, Rev. ii. 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, v. 14, 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.

CHAP. XIX.

Ver. 1. THus ſaith the Lord] By the former Type of a Potter and his Veſſel, God had ſhewed the Jews what he could do to them, viz. break them at his pleaſure, and remake them upon their repentance. Here, by a like prophetical paradigme, is ſet forth what the Lord now will do to them: viz. break them ſo for their obſtinacy, as that they ſhould never be repaired, and reſtored to their ancient luſtre, and flouriſh. And this the Prophet Jeremy (fortiſſimus ille Dei athleta, as One calleth him) that valiant Champion of the Lord, telleth them freely, though he kiſſed the flocks and was well beaten for his boldneſſe, chap. 20.2. Where it is worthy our obſervation, that as the Prophets task was more and more increaſed, ſo was his ſtrength and courage. Deus gratiam multiplicat onere ingraveſcente. So it was with Athanaſius, Luther, Latimer, Calvin, &c.

Goe and get a Potters earthen bottle] Called in Hebrew Bakbuk: Onomatopaejae. either from the emptineſſe and hollowneſſe of it; or elſe from the gugling ſound that it made when it was either filled or emptyed. By a like figure it is ſaid of the vulturine Eagle,Jegnalegnudam. Job 39.30. that they doe glutglut blood.

And take of the ancients] Of both ſorts for witneſſes.

Ver. 2. And go forth unto the valley of the ſon of Hinnom] See chap. 7.3. that where the Jews had ſinned, there they might be ſentenced.

Which is by the entry of the Eaſt-gate] Or (as others render it) Portam fictilem ſeu teſtaceam, the Potters gate (becauſe the Potters dwelt near to it, and thereby carried forth their potſheards) called alſo the dung-gate, ſaith the Chaldee Paraphraſe: an alluſion being hereby made both to the pot he carried, and to the pieces of it when broken, which ſhould be caſt to the dunghil. Inde ad gehennam via erat. This was the way to Tophet: and thither Jeremy led them,A Lapide. ſaid an Expoſitour, that conſidering their graves in that Valley, according to chap. 7.32. and that their bodies, thoſe earthen veſſels, ſhould ſoon after be broken and carried out as dung into Tophet by the Chaldeans, and their ſouls into Hell by the devils, they might repent, and ſo prevent ſuch a miſchief.

And proclaim there the words that I ſhall tell thee] God took his own times to tell his Prophets what they ſhould tell the people. The priviledge of infallibility (ſaith a Divine) was perpetual to the Apoſtles: Prophetis verò ſaepius intervallatum, & fere non extra ipſos prophetandi paroxyſmos durans, not ſo to the Prophets, but whil'ſt they were prophecying only for the moſt part: neither knew they many times what they ſhould Prophecy, till the very inſtant.

Ver. 3. Hear the Word of the Lord ye Kings of Judah] i. e. O King and thy counſellours, who are ſo many little Kings, as King James was wont to ſay of the Parliament men.

Behold I bring evil upon this place] This he ſpake to all and with all authority; catholicam & miſerabilem perniciem proclamans. It is credible that he ſpake it with as good a courage (or better) as Biſhop Ridley Martyr did thoſe comminatory words of his to Queen Mary and her ſervants, when they refuſed to hear him preach: He uttered them with ſuch a vehemency,Act. & Mon. 1[illegible: 1 letter]70. ſaith mine Authour, that ſome of the hearers afterwards confeſſed the haires to ſtand upright on their heads.

His cares ſhall tingle] For grief and fear; as if he had been ſtonied with a thunder-clap, or were ready to ſwoon.

Ver. 4. Becauſe they have forſaken me] Chap. 16.11.

And eſtranged this place] Or, ſtrangely abuſed it ſo as I ſcarce know it, or can find in my heart to own it.

Whom neither they, nor their fathers] ſc. Quamdiu probifuerunt & pii, ſo long as they had any goodneſs in them, ſaith Hierom. Thoſe afterwards that worſhipped they knew not what (as thoſe Samaritans did, Joh. 4.) are not worthy to be reckoned on, much leſs to be imitated. Walk ye not in the ſtatutes of your fathers, neither obſerve their judgements, nor defile your ſelves with their Idols, Ezek. 20.18.

And have filled this place with the blood of innocents] Eſpecially of Infants ſacrificed to Moloch in Tophet, ſo filling up the meaſure of your ſins.

Ver. 5. Which I commanded not] Reprobatur voluntarius cultus, & factitiae religiones. See chap. 7.31. and 32.35. 2 King. 23.10.

Ver. 6. This place ſhall no more] See chap. 7.32. Things are repeated, that they may be the better obſerved.

Ver. 7. And I will make void the counſel of Judah] As vain and empty as this earthen bottle now is. See on ver. 1. and take notice of an elegant Agnomination in the Original.

And their carcaſſes will I give] See chap. 7.33. and 16.4.

Ver. 6. And I will make this City deſolate] See chap. 18.10.

Ver. 9. And I will cauſe them to eat the fleſh] This as it was threatned, Lev. 26.29. Deut. 28 23. ſo accordingly accompliſhed, Lam. 2.20. and 4.10. Ptolomaeus Lathurus King of Egypt barbarouſly ſlew thirty thouſand Jews, and forced the reſt to feed upon the fleſh of thoſe that were ſlain.

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

Ver. 11. That cannot be made whole again] Heb. cured. No more was the Jewiſh Polity ever reſtored to its ancient dignity and luſtre, after the captivity: neither was Tophet ever repaired at all, but ſerved for a charnel-houſe, a place to lay dead mens bones in.

Ver. 12. And even make their City as Tophet] Every whit as abominable and horrid: a very hell above ground.

Ver. 13. And the houſes of Jeruſalem] Wherein they had their chambers of imagery, and their private chappels for Idolatrous uſes, (as Papiſts alſo have) Ezek. 8.12. Zeph. 1.

Becauſe all the houſes upon whoſe roofes] See on Zeph. 1.4.

Ver. 14. And he ſtood in the court of the Lords houſe] A place of greateſt concourſe of people: and where he might meet with many hearers. Here he ſpred his net, that he might catch ſome ſouls; dilated his diſcourſe at Tophet, whereof we have here but the ſhort notes; minding them of their ſinne and puniſhment. And ſurely this Prophet ſhould be ſo much the more regarded by us, for that he ſo freely and fully delivered the divine meſſages, omitting no part thereof, either for fear or favour. Ambroſe bad Austin read the Prophet Iſaiah diligently, for the confirmation of his faith. We may all very profitably read the Prophet Jeremy who is full of incitation to repentance and new obedience.

Ver. 15. Becauſe they have hardened their necks] Which may ſeem poſſeſſed with an iron ſinew, ſo ſtiffe they are and ſturdy, having manum in aure, aurem in cervice, cervicem in corde, cor in obſtinatione, their hand on their eare, their eare in their neck, their neck in their heart, and their heart in obſtinacy, &c.