Jeremiah
Chapter 19
The Clay Jar
This was an order from the Lord to Jeremiah: “Go and buy a jar from the potter. Take along some elders of the people and a few senior priests,
and go out to the valley of Ben-Hinnom at the entrance to the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there what I tell you.”
The Valley of Ben-Hinnom
Say this: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and citizens of Jerusalem! The Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, is the one speaking. I am about to send a disaster upon this place that will cause the ears of those who hear it to tingle.
Here they have forsaken me, offering incense to foreign gods that neither they, their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah have known. They have desecrated this place by filling it with the blood of the innocent.
They have built high places for Baal to burn their children as sacrifices in the fire. This is something I never commanded them to do, much less think of in my mind.
‘Therefore, I, the Lord, tell you now that the days will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Massacre.
In this place, I will thwart the plans of Judah and Jerusalem and allow their enemies to kill them; the very people who have relentlessly pursued their lives. Then, I will commit their corpses to the birds and the beasts as food.
I will turn this city into a dreadful wasteland —an object of ridicule and a scene of horror that will shock passersby and make them hiss when they see the terrible disaster!
The city will be surrounded by enemies who have vowed to massacre the people. No one will be able to escape this tight siege, and the residents will be forced to eat each other’s flesh, even that of their own children.
Then, you shall break the jar in front of the people who have accompanied you
11c People will still bury the dead even in Topheth, because there is no more space in the land to bury them.
This is exactly what I will do to Jerusalem and its citizens, turning this city into Topheth.
The houses of Jerusalem and the palaces of Judah’s kings will be defiled like Topheth because these houses have been used to burn incense to the stars and pour wine offerings to strange gods.’”
Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood on the porch of the Lord’s house. There, he told all the people,
“Listen to the word of the Lord, God of Israel: I am about to bring disaster on this city and the surrounding towns that I have already warned about because they are a stubborn people and will not listen to me.”
Commentaries
The Clay Jar.
By publicly breaking a jar and delivering an oracle, the prophet reveals the impending disaster that will befall Jerusalem and Judah. Jeremiah’s words, spoken at a city gate and in the temple courtyard, anger the temple security chief. Instead of listening to the prophet, they respond with flogging and imprisonment, a violent act that confirms the punishment Jerusalem and its people deserve. However, neither this nor what is yet to come stops Jeremiah from continuing his mission.
The Valley of Ben-Hinnom.
This valley, located outside the southern wall of Jerusalem, was the site of two heinous sins: worshiping foreign gods and burning children (4). When the city is under siege, its people will eat their children (9) (see Lam 4:10). The furnace, called “Tofet” in Hebrew, where sacrificed children were burned, will become the scene of a considerable slaughter, also known as the “valley of souls” or “valley of slaughter” (6), and will be regarded as an unclean place (13).