# Jeremiah 19 📖: The Shattered Jar [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Jeremiah Overview]] | [[Jeremiah 18]] | [[Jeremiah 20]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### An Object Lesson from a Broken Clay Jar [[#Verse 01.]] The Lord told Jeremiah, “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take with you some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests.  [[#Verse 02.]] Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley that is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Announce there what I tell you. [[#Verse 03.]] Say, ‘Listen to the Lord’s message, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, has said, “Look here! I am about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring.  [[#Verse 04.]] I will do so because these people have rejected me and have defiled this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children.  [[#Verse 05.]] They have built places here for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices are something I never commanded them to make. They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind.  [[#Verse 06.]] So I, the Lord, say: “The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley the Valley of Slaughter!  [[#Verse 07.]] In this place I will thwart the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword at the hands of their enemies. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat.  [[#Verse 08.]] I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it.  [[#Verse 09.]] I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” [[#Verse 10.]] The Lord continued, “Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you.  [[#Verse 11.]] Tell them the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says, ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel that is broken beyond repair. The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ [[#Verse 12.]] I, the Lord, say: ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth. [[#Verse 13.]] The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’” [[#Verse 14.]] Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the Lord had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the Lord’s temple and stood in its courtyard and called out to all the people.  [[#Verse 15.]] “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused to pay any attention to what I have said!’” ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. The clay jar (19:1) is a *baqbuq*, and in 19:7 God says He will "pour out" or "make void" (*baqqoti*) Judah's plans. The words sound alike. 2. Jeremiah took some of the elders and senior priests as witnesses (19:1). 3. The Potsherd Gate (19:2) likely got its name from broken pottery dumped near it. 4. The Valley of Ben Hinnom ran along the south side of Jerusalem. 5. Topheth (19:6) was the place where children were sacrificed by fire. 6. God says child sacrifice was something He never commanded, nor did it enter His mind (19:5). 7. The terrible siege conditions in 19:9 echo the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28:53 and are described in Lamentations 4:10. 8. People burned incense to the host of heaven on their rooftops (19:13). Flat roofs were used for daily activities and for worship of the stars. 9. A fired clay jar could not be reshaped once broken (19:11), unlike the soft clay of chapter 18. 10. Matthew 27:9-10 attributes a prophecy to Jeremiah, drawing on Jeremiah's potter imagery along with Zechariah 11:12-13. ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the One who bore the judgment pictured by the shattered jar (19:10-11). Matthew links Jeremiah's potter imagery to the potter's field bought with the price of Jesus' betrayal (Matthew 27:9-10), where judgment turned into redemption. ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. Jeremiah broke a clay jar in front of the leaders (19:10-11). Why do you think God used such a vivid picture? 2. The people filled the valley with innocent blood (19:4). What does the chapter teach about how God sees injustice and the harm of the vulnerable? 3. Some things broken by sin cannot be mended by human effort (19:11). How does this point us to our need for God's grace? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 4: They have forsaken Me and filled this place with the blood of the innocent. - 📖 verse 5: They built high places to burn their sons in the fire, something God never commanded. - 📖 verse 11: God will shatter this people and city like a potter's jar that cannot be repaired. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[Matthew 27#Verse 09.|Matthew 27:9-10]] - The potter's field bought with thirty pieces of silver. - 🔗 [[2 Kings 23#Verse 10.|2 Kings 23:10]] - Josiah defiles Topheth. - 🔗 [[Deuteronomy 28#Verse 53.|Deuteronomy 28:53]] - The siege warning in the covenant curses. - 🔗 [[Lamentations 04#Verse 10.|Lamentations 4:10]] - The horrors of the siege fulfilled. - 🔗 [[Revelation 02#Verse 27.|Revelation 2:27]] - Nations broken like clay pots. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Jeremiah 19 - SOAP|When We Don’t Listen]] ## 📂 Internal Notes