Jeremiah · chapter 19 of 52
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Jeremiah 19 tells the sign-act of the broken jar. Jeremiah buys a fired clay jar, takes some elders and priests to the valley of Ben-hinnom and announces that God will ruin the city for its idolatry and the sacrifice of children. Then he breaks the jar before them: so the Lord will break this people, so that it cannot be mended.
Jeremiah 19 is the visual continuation of chapter 18. There the clay could be reworked in the potter's hands; here the jar is already fired and, once broken, cannot be fixed. The chapter combines a sermon in the valley of Ben-hinnom, a place associated with idolatrous rites, with a dramatic gesture. The authorities' reaction will be seen in the next chapter.
The Lord tells Jeremiah to buy a potter's earthenware jar and to take with him some of the elders of the people and of the priests. He is to go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and there proclaim the words God gives him.
In the valley he announces to the kings of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem that the Lord will bring such a disaster on this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. They have forsaken the Lord, have profaned this place by making offerings to gods that neither they nor their fathers knew, and have filled the place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which the Lord did not command or speak of, nor did it come into his mind. So the place will be called the Valley of Slaughter. He will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem, make them fall by the sword before their enemies and give their corpses as food to the birds and beasts. He will make this city a horror and a hissing. In the siege they will eat the flesh of their sons and daughters.
Then Jeremiah is to break the jar in the sight of the men who go with him and tell them: so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it can never be mended. They will bury in Topheth because there will be no place elsewhere. So will I do to this place and its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place of Topheth, because of the houses on whose roofs they burned incense to all the host of heaven.
Jeremiah comes from Topheth, stands in the court of the Lord's house and tells all the people that the Lord will bring on this city all the disaster he announced, because they stiffened their necks so as not to hear his words.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord charges the people with forsaking him, filling the place with innocent blood and building altars of Baal to burn their sons. He says he never commanded it nor did it enter his mind. Idolatry came to destroy what was most precious.
The place where these acts were committed, Topheth, will be called the Valley of Slaughter. The place of their guilt will become the place of their judgment.
Jeremiah breaks the jar before the witnesses and declares that so the Lord will break this people and city beyond repair. Unlike the potter's clay, this vessel was already hardened and cannot be remade.
The prophet concludes that the Lord will bring the announced disaster because the people stiffened their necks so as not to hear. Resistance to the Word is the final cause of the judgment.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: A potter's earthenware jar. — Jeremiah 19:1
Answer: The valley of the son of Hinnom, by the Potsherd Gate. — Jeremiah 19:2
Answer: Burning them in the fire as offerings, which the Lord did not command. — Jeremiah 19:5
Answer: The Valley of Slaughter. — Jeremiah 19:6
Answer: He broke it and said that so the Lord would break the people and the city. — Jeremiah 19:10-11
Answer: In the court of the Lord's house, before all the people. — Jeremiah 19:14
The broken jar is a warning about the danger of hardening. While the clay is wet, God can remake it; if it hardens through willful stubbornness, there is no way to mend it. A group can talk about the signs of a hardening heart and the importance of responding quickly to God's voice.
The denunciation of child sacrifice also reminds us that idolatry always ends up costing lives. Today the idols of money, success or comfort can sacrifice the most vulnerable. The church is called to protect children and to put God above every other value.
Jeremiah 19 ends with the prophet standing in the temple court repeating his message. In chapter 20 a priest strikes him and puts him in the stocks, and Jeremiah enters one of his most intense confessions.
It was a place in the valley of Ben-hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where some people of Judah practiced the sacrifice of children by fire, something the law condemned. Later the valley became associated with refuse and judgment, and its name in Greek, Gehenna, is used in the New Testament to speak of final punishment.
In chapter 18 the clay was still wet and could be reworked, which stands for the possibility of repentance. In chapter 19 the jar is already fired and, once broken, cannot be repaired, which stands for a judgment that no longer allows turning back.
They were witnesses with authority who could confirm what happened. In ancient culture, a symbolic action before official witnesses gave the message public weight and made them accountable for what they had seen.