Lange Commentary - Jeremiah 19:1

Lange Commentary - Jeremiah 19:1 - 19:13

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Lange Commentary - Jeremiah 19:1 - 19:13

(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Second Symbol:—The Broken Vessel

Jeremiah 19, 20

1. The symbolic action and its interpretation

Jer_19:1-13

¹Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], Go and get [buy] a potter’s earthen bottle [vessel], and take [some] of the ancients [elders] of the people, and of the ancients ²[elders] of the priests; And go forth into the valley of the Son of Hinnom [valley of Ben-Hinnom], which is by the entry of the east [Potters’] gate, and ³proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord [Jehovah], O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts [Jehovah Zebaoth] the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon ⁴this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and ⁵have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons [children] with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind.

⁶Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord [Jehovah], that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The Valley of the Son of Hinnom [valley of ⁷Ben-Hinnom] but The Valley of Slaughter. And I will make void [pour out] 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 ⁸beasts of the earth [land]. And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing [a horror of desolation and a derision]; every one that passes thereby [through] shall be astonished and hiss[deride] because of all the plagues thereof. And I will ⁹cause 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.

¹⁰Then shalt thou break the bottle [pitcher] in the sight of the men that go with thee. ¹¹And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts [Jehovah Zebaoth], 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 [because] there be ¹²[is] no place [room] to bury [elsewhere]. Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord [Jehovah], and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: ¹³and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be denied 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.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The prophet receives the command to buy another pitcher from the potter, and in company with the elders of the people and priests to betake himself to the valley of Ben-Hinnom, near a gate, which appears here under the name of the Potter’s gate (Jer_19:1-2). There he is to proclaim the words which we read in Jer_19:3-13. In these words a severe divine judgment is first proclaimed in general (Jer_19:3). Then the crimes are narrated in detail, which the people and the kings of Judah have committed in this place. Then the divine punishments are mentioned, of which the witness and theatre will be the valley of Ben-Hinnom or Tophet: 1. This will be called the Valley of Slaughter, (Jer_19:6), in consequence of the slaughter, which after the failure of the plans determined on by the people (here the prophet must have made the gesture of pouring out of the pitcher), both the enemy will make among the people, and the people among themselves (Jer_19:8-9). 2. The people and city shall be broken in pieces, which the prophet indicates by the breaking of the pitcher; Tophet for lack of room shall become a place of interment, and the city, with all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal, shall become a place like the desolate and unclean Tophet (Jer_19:10-13).

Jer_19:1-2. Thus saith … I shall tell thee. This opening is like that in Jer_17:19—bottle, Heb. bakbuk, is an earthen pitcher with a long neck. The sound of the word seems to imitate the noise of water being poured out.—Comp. the Greek âüìâõëïò , âïìâýëç , and the German Kutterkrug.—Elders of the priests are mentioned besides only in Isa_37:2 (2Ki_19:2). Whether they are identical with the princes or chief of the priests (2Ch_26:14; Neh_12:7) or only in general the most respectable of the priests is doubtful. Comp. Oehler, in Herzog, R.-Enc., XII. S. 183.—Valley of Ben-Hinnom. Comp. Comm. on Jer_7:31 coll. Jer_2:23.—By the entry ( ôúç ), comp. Gen_18:1; Jdg_9:35, etc.Naegelsb. Gr., § 70, c.—Potter’s gate. 1. concerning the form, comp. Textual Notes. 2. As to the meaning, (a) some of the older Rabbins, cited by Kimchi, who however does not agree with them, are of opinion that the word is to be derived from çֶøֶí sun, and that by the sun-gate is to be understood the eastern gate of the temple, since there was no gate in the city-wall to the South. So also Teemellius, Piscator, J. D. Michaelis and Hitzig, but they would have the southern gate of the outer court (a solis æstu sic dictam) understood to be the nearest way to Tophet. (b) The other commentators agree in deriving çַøִñִéú from äֶøֶí , testa. But opinions greatly differ whether the gate was so called because the potsherds were thrown out there [the Chaldee paraphrast renders: the dung-gate], or because the potters lived in its vicinity, or because the clay-pits were just outside the gate. The last is the view of Hofmann (Weiss, u. Erf. II., S. 124, etc. Vid. Comm. on 7. 31). Apart from the etymological signification of the word Tophet, which Hofmann gives, it is in favor of this interpretation that this same place is called in Mat_27:7 ἀãñὸò ôïῦ êåñáìÝùò (observe the generic article). This name decidedly favors the supposition that the place stood in closer relation to pottery than that of a mere depository of potsherds. White clay, a kind of pipe-clay, is also still dug there. Comp. Herzog, R.-Enc, 5. S. 475; Raumer, Pal. S. 306. Finally the choice of an earthen pitcher for the prophetic symbol must have been occasioned by the inner relation which the pitcher bore to the place of the action. If it was merely intended to indicate that death and destruction would come upon Jerusalem even so as to fill Tophet with corpses, the breaking and throwing away of any other object would have answered as well. But Jeremiah is to take an earthen pitcher because Tophet was the place where such vessels were produced, consequently nothing was more natural than to choose for this place of breaking an object to be broken which originated there, in connection with which it is not to be denied that other reasons, as the comparatively easy frangibility, and the climax in relation to Jeremiah 18. (there transformation, here destruction) may have co-operated. And by all this also it. is not disputed that the potters may have lived in the vicinity of the clay-pits, and that the same place may have served at the same time for the deposit of potsherds and other refuse. 3. To what gate otherwise known does the pottery-gate correspond? The name occurs here only. The remark on 17. 19 is here confirmed that the names of the gates of Jerusalem have been often changed. Many commentators proceed, as we have remarked, on the hypothesis that the city wall had no gates to the South. That this is an error will now scarcely be doubted by anyone. Comp. Raumer, Pal., S. 291. On the southern side of the city were the well-gate [Zion-gate?—S. R. A.] and the dung-gate. Both opened on the Tyropæum, both therefore conducted to Tophet, the former being nearer to this place. But the latter corresponds better to the character of Tophet as an unclean spot, receiving the impurities of the city. Here also the cloaca Betzo disembogued. “The site of this gate,” says Raumer, S. 352, “is the lowest point of the city, to which all the filth of the city and the ravine of Siloah descends.”—[Comp. Thomson, The Land and the Book, II. 497]. A definite conclusion is however not to be reached with respect to things concerning which so much uncertainty still prevails.

Jer_19:3-5. And say … into my mind. Here it is not recorded, as in Jer_18:3, that the prophet performed the command received in Jer_19:1-2, and thereupon in the valley of Hinnom received the revelation contained in Jer_19:3 sqq. For there (Jeremiah 18.) the revelation to be received was occasioned by the observations made at the potter’s (18. 3, 4). There is no similar occasion here, so that Jer_19:3 proceeds at once to communicate the revelation.—And say, reads as though the previous discourse were continued, which cannot be the case on account of I shall tell. We shall not err if we attribute the mode of expression here chosen to the written representation.—Kings of Judah. Here, as in Jer_19:4 coll. 13. 13; 17. 20 the prophet has in view not only the person of the present, king, but the kingdom of Judah generally.—This place is here, in accordance with what follows. Tophet.—They, etc. Comp. Jer_9:15; Jer_16:13; Jer_44:3; Jer_44:2—Have filled. On the verbal form comp. Comm. on 18. 4.—Blood of innocents. According to the connection and Psa_106:37-38 we must understand this of the blood of the children offered in sacrifice.

Jer_19:5 is almost verbatim the same as Jer_7:31; Jer_32:35. Comp. the remarks on the first of these passages.

Jer_19:6-9. Therefore behold … shall straiten them. After, in Jer_19:4-5, the abominations practised in Tophet have been enumerated, the announcement is now made of the corresponding punishments. This announcement, which appears to be a specification of the summary denunciation in Jer_19:3 b, is made in two stages, of which the first (Jer_19:6-9) is accompanied by the gesture of pouring out (Jer_19:7), and the second by the act of breaking (Jer_19:10).—The days come, etc., Jer_19:6. Comp. Comm. on Jer_7:32.—Pour out. Isa_24:1; Nah_2:3. What is poured out falls to the ground, which is frequently used as a figurative expression for coming to naught. Comp. 1Sa_3:19; 2Ki_10:10.—In this place. Is this the term, in quo, or in quern? I believe the latter. In Tophet all the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem is to find its tragical end, as this is indeed expressed by the name Valley of Slaughter, and by burying in Tophet (Jer_19:11) and by becoming like Tophet (Jer_19:12).—I will give, etc. Comp. 7. 30; 16. 4.—A hissing, Jer_19:8. Comp. 18. 16; 25. 9, 18; 51. 37.—Every one, etc. Comp. 1Ki_9:8; Jer_18:16; Jer_49:17; Jer_1:13.

Jer_19:9 is taken entire from Deu_28:53-55 (Lev_26:29). Comp. Lam_2:20; Lam_4:10. As historical analogies, comp. 2Ki_6:28-29. Joseph, Bell. Jud., 4. 3, 3–5.

Jer_19:10-13. Then shalt thou break … unto other gods. The second stage of the symbolic action. The progress consists in this, that by the breaking of the pitcher the total ruin of the city and people (therefore not merely of individuals) and by the casting into Tophet its desolation and defilement, or in other words its becoming itself Tophet, is symbolized.’—As one breaketh (Jer_19:11). Comp. Comm. on 5. 26; 6. 29; 8. 4; 10. 3; 12. 11; Naegelsb. Gr., § 101, 2, b.—Cannot be made whole again. Though uttered concerning another object, we find the same words verbatim in Deu_28:27; Deu_28:35.—And they shall bury, etc. Comp. Jer_7:32. These words being wanting in the LXX., have been suspected. But they stand in a good connection, and correspond to the casting out, by which the pitcher was not merely broken but buried in Tophet. Consequently by this act Tophet is as it were dedicated to the purposes of a cemetery. Jeremiah says interments will be made in Tophet for want of room. This prophecy may have been fulfilled after the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar (comp. Jer_32:29) though we have no positive statements to this effect. But Tophet. having once become a place of burial, must have accomplished this destination afterwards in a significant manner. It is the ἀãñὸò ôïῦ êåñáìÝùò which was bought with the price of blood for the burial-place of pilgrims (Mat_27:3 sqq.; Act_1:18-19). And still at the present day Aceldama is the burial-place of pilgrims dying in Jerusalem; indeed the whole of the valley surrounding Zion on the West and South, on its right side, contains numerous rock sepulchres, a true “Necropolis,” says Raumer. Comp. his Pal., S. 306.

Jer_19:12. Thus will I do, etc. The Lord will do to the city as is indicated by the breaking of the pitcher. Thus will Jerusalem become a heap of ruins, and unclean, for the want of room presupposes that even the city itself will be full of corpses. Therefore we find åְ before ìָúֵú = and indeed. Comp. rems. on Jer_17:10.—Shall be defiled, ( äèîàéí ). [Henderson renders: which are polluted, shall be as this place; Hitzig, Umbreit, Naegelsbach: shall be as the place of Tophet, the unclean, or unclean.—S. R. A.]. Since the Hebrew in a much higher degree than our modern languages is capable of the constructio ad sensum, since especially an ideal plural is often contained in singular words (comp. 1Ki_5:17; 2Sa_15:23. Naegelsb. Gr., § 105, 2f.) so the connection of the singular Tophet with äèîàéí presents in itself no difficulty. Only it is not clear what are the several elements included in the unity of Tophet. Hofmann and others suppose them to be graves, a referred above, on Jer_7:31, to altars. This word is certainly elsewhere used as feminine. But in respect also to gender, the same ideal construction prevails in the Hebrew. (Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 60, 4). It appears to me therefore that the prophet had here the places of worship in view. These he calls unclean both en account of the abominations practised there, and the defilements caused by Josiah, 2Ki_23:10. The other renderings (defiled as the predicate, or as in apposition to houses or to place or another division of the words: úֹּáְּúֵּä èְîֵàִֹéí ) are opposed by such strong grammatical objections, that the remaining uncertainty of our explanation is scarce worth consideration in comparison with them. The houses of Jerusalem will however in this sense be like Tophet, that the place where they now stand, will in the future become as desolate and unclean as it.—Upon the roofs. Comp. Zep_1:5; 2Ki_23:12. J. D. Michaelis quotes Strabo (16. p. 1131): Íáâáôáῖïé (comp. 1Ma_5:25; 1Ma_9:35) ἥëéïí ôéìῶóéí ἐðὶ ôïῦ äþìáôïò ßäñõóÜìåíïé âùìὸí , óðÝíäïíôåò ἐí áὐôῷêáè ἡìÝñáí êáὶ ëéâáíßæïíôåò .

Footnotes:

Jer_19:1.— á÷á÷ is found as an appellative in 1Ki_14:3, and as a proper name in Ezr_2:51; Neh_7:53, coll. áַּ÷ְñֻּ÷ְéָä , Neh_11:17; Neh_12:9; Neh_12:25. Gesenius (Thes., I., p. 232 [Lax. s, v.]) derives it from á÷÷ , evacuavit (comp. Jer_19:7), according to the analogy of çַøְçֻø , áַּøְáֻãִéí , etc. So also Olsh. § 190, e. [Hitzig renders: a bottle,—Naegelsb.: a pitcher,—from the maker of earthenware.—S. R. A.]— éåöø çøùׂ . There is also éֹöְøֵé ôֶñֶì , Isa_44:9 coll. Isa_54:16-17. çøùׂ synonymous with çֶøֶí , is that which has become dry and rough by heat. (Comp. çֶøֶí , scabies a scabiendo, as Krätze from kratzen in German), Deu_28:27, and çֶøֶí , sun, in Jdg_8:13; Job_9:7; then especially the burnt earthenware: áְּìִé ç× , Lev_6:21, etc. ðִáְìֵé ç× , Lam_4:2.

Jer_19:1.— åîæ÷ðé å× . LXX., êáὶ ἂîåéò ἀðὸ ôῶí ðñåóâíôÝñùí , etc. They certainly did not read åְìָ÷ַçְúָּ , but correctly supplied it from åְ÷ָðִéúָ , for the prophet was not merely to buy the pitcher, but to take it with him. It is a species of very bold construction peægnins, the verb to be supplied governing not the preposition present in the sentence, but the preposition of a second sentence, connected by åְ , to which it forms a predicate, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 112, 7.

Jer_19:2.— ùַׁòַø çַçַøְñִéú . The form çַøְñåּú is not the later, as Hitzig supposes, but çַøְñִéú is the only form used by the Rabbins, and from this both the Keri and the ×áñóåßè (LXX.) or Ἁñóßè (Aqu., Symm., Theod.), of the Greek translators is to be explained. The Syriac text in the London Polyglot strangely has Chadsit.

Jer_19:3—Comp. 1Sa_3:11; 2Ki_21:12. As to the construction 1. áָּìÎùֹׁîְòָä Partic. absolutum to be resolved into a hypothetical sentence. (Comp. Exo_12:15; Num_21:3 : Naegelsb. Gr., § 97, 2 b); 2. àֲùֶׁø is accusative, attracted by ùׁîְòָúּ ; 3. The apodosis on account of the brevity of the sentence is without the connecting Vau. (Comp. Gen_4:15; Rth_1:16-17). úִּöַìְðָä for úְּöִìֶּéðָä (so in 1Sa_3:11) according to the Aramaic formation. Comp. Ewald, § 197, a; Olsh., § 243, b, d.

Jer_19:4.— åéðëøå å× LXX. ἀðçëëïôñßùóáí ; Vulg., alienum fecerunt. This rendering accords both with the connection and the etymology of the word. The latter occurs in Piel besides only in Deu_32:7; 1Sa_23:7; Job_21:29; Job_34:19. With the exception of the passages in Job, in which the Piel evidently has the meaning of the Hiphil, the meaning is everywhere appropriate, “to estrange one’s self or another.”

Jer_19:8.—On the suffix form in îַëֹּúֵäָ comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 44, 4 Anm. coll. Olsh., § 131, 1.

Jer_19:9.— àùø éöé÷å ìäí wherewith they procure them distress (Deu_28:53; Deu_28:55; Deu_28:57). àùׁø is the Acc. instrumentalis (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 70, i.); äֵöִé÷ , is that Hiphil, which has the substantive idea contained in the verb with respect to the nearer object (comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 69, 1 Anm. 2; Jdg_16:16; Isa_29:2; Isa_29:7).

Jer_19:13.— ìְ . ìëì is distributive. Comp. Eze_44:9. Naegelsb. Gr., § 112, 5 b.

Jer_19:13.— åäñã . Comp. rems. on Jer_7:18; Jer_44:17 sqq. coll. Jer_32:29. With respect to the construction, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 92, 2 a.