The same melancholy theme is the subject of this
chapter that was of those foregoing—the approaching ruin of Judah
and Jerusalem for their sins. This Jeremiah had often foretold;
here he has particularly full orders to foretel it again. I. He
must set their sins in order before them, as he had often done,
especially their idolatry,
1 Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, 3 And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: 6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 7 And I will make void 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 beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. 9 And I will cause 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.
The corruption of man having made it necessary that precept should be upon precept, and line upon line (so unapt are we to receive, and so very apt to let slip, the things of God), the grace of God has provided that there shall be, accordingly, precept upon precept, and line upon line, that those who are irreclaimable may be inexcusable. For this reason the prophet is here sent with a message to the same purport with what he had often delivered, but with some circumstances that might make it the more taken notice of, a thing which ministers should study, for a little circumstance may sometimes be a great advantage, and those that would win souls must be wise.
I. He must take of the elders and chief
men, both in church and state, to be his auditors and witnesses to
what he said—the ancients of the people and the ancients of the
priests, the most eminent men both in the magistracy and in the
ministry, that they might be faithful witnesses to record,
as those
II. He must go to the valley of the son
of Hinnom, and deliver this message there; for the word of
the Lord is not bound to any one place; as good a sermon may be
preached in the valley of Tophet as in the gate of the temple.
Christ preached on a mountain and out of a ship. This valley lay
partly on the south side of Jerusalem, but the prophet's way to it
was by the entry on the east gate—the sun gate (
III. He must give general notice of a
general ruin now shortly coming upon Judah and Jerusalem,
IV. He must plainly tell them what their
sins were for which God had this controversy with them,
V. He must endeavour to affect them with
the greatness of the desolation that was coming upon them. He must
tell them (as he had done before,
VI. He must assure them that all their
attempts to prevent and avoid this ruin, so long as they continued
impenitent and unreformed, would be fruitless and vain (
10 Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 11 And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; 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 there be no place to bury. 12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: 13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled 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. 14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house; and said to all the people, 15 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
The message of wrath delivered in the
I. By a visible sign. The prophet was to
take along with him an earthen bottle (
II. By a solemn recognition and
ratification of what he had said in the court of the Lord's
house,