{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/jfb/jer019.htm","path":"bib/cmt/jfb/jer019.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/jfb/jer019.htm","text":"A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]\nbottle--Hebrew, bakuk, so called from the gurgling sound which it makes when being emptied.\nancients--elders. As witnesses of the symbolic action (Jer 19:10; Isa 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.\nvalley of the son of Hinnom--or Tophet, south of Jerusalem, where human victims were offered, and children made to pass through the fire, in honor of Molech.\neast gate--Margin, \"sun gate,\" sunrise being in the east. MAURER translates, the \"potter's gate.\" Through it lay the road to the valley of Hinnom (Jos 15:8). The potters there formed vessels for the use of the temple, which was close by (compare Jer 19:10, Jer 19:14; Jer 18:2; Zac 11:13). The same as \"the water gate toward the east\" (Neh 3:26; Neh 12:37); so called from the brook Kedron. CALVIN translates, as English Version and Margin. \"It was monstrous perversity to tread the law under foot in so conspicuous a place, over which the sun daily rising reminded them of the light of God's law.\"\nThe scene of their guilt is chosen as the scene of the denunciation against them.\nkings--the king and queen (Jer 13:18); or including the king's counsellors and governors under him.\ntingle--as if struck by a thunder peal (Sa1 3:11; Kg2 21:12).\n(Isa 65:11).\nestranged this place--devoted it to the worship of strange gods: alienating a portion of the sacred city from God, the rightful Lord of the temple, city, and whole land.\nnor their fathers--namely, the godly among them; their ungodly fathers God makes no account of.\nblood of innocents--slain in honor of Molech (Jer 7:31; Psa 106:37).\ncommanded not--nay, more, I commanded the opposite (Lev 18:21; see Jer 7:31-32).\nno more . . . Tophet--from Hebrew, toph, \"drum\"; for in sacrificing children to Molech drums were beaten to drown their cries. Thus the name indicated the joy of the people at the fancied propitiation of the god by this sacrifice; in antithesis to its joyless name subsequently.\nvalley of slaughter--It should be the scene of slaughter, no longer of children, but of men; not of \"innocents\" (Jer 19:4), but of those who richly deserved their fate. The city could not be assailed without first occupying the valley of Hinnom, in which was the only fountain: hence arose the violent battle there.\nmake void the counsel--defeat their plans for repelling the enemy (Ch2 32:1-4; Isa 19:3; Isa 22:9, Isa 22:11). Or their schemes of getting help by having recourse to idols [CALVIN].\nin this place--The valley of Hinnom was to be the place of the Chaldean encampment; the very place where they looked for help from idols was to be the scene of their own slaughter.\n(See on Jer 18:16).\n(Deu 28:53; Lam 4:10).\nbreak . . . bottle--a symbolical action, explained in Jer 19:11.\nthe men--the elders of the people and of the priests (Jer 19:1; compare Jer 51:63-64).\nas one breaketh a potters vessel--expressing God's absolute sovereignty (Jer 18:6; Psa 2:9; Isa 30:14, Margin; Lam 4:2; Rom 9:20-21).\ncannot be made whole again--A broken potter's vessel cannot be restored, but a new one may be made of the same material. So God raised a new Jewish seed, not identical with the destroyed rebels, but by substituting another generation in their stead [GROTIUS].\nno place to bury-- (Jer 7:32).\nmake this city as Tophet--that is, as defiled with dead bodies as Tophet.\nshall be defiled--with dead bodies (Jer 19:12; Kg2 23:10).\nbecause of all the houses--Rather, (explanatory of the previous \"the houses . . . and . . . houses\"), \"even all the houses,\" &c. [CALVIN].\nroofs--being flat, they were used as high places for sacrifices to the sun and planets (Jer 32:29; Kg2 23:11-12; Zep 1:5). The Nabateans, south and east of the Dead Sea, a nation most friendly to the Jews, according to STRABO, had the same usage.\ncourt of the Lord's house--near Tophet; the largest court, under the open air, where was the greatest crowd (Ch2 20:5).\nher towns--the suburban villages and towns near Jerusalem, such as Bethany.","title":"A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments: Jeremiah: Jeremiah Chapter 19","type":"page"}