Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Jeremiah 19:1

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.