Jeremiah 19:10 - Meaning and Application

The warning of wrath in the verses before is now pressed home so people will believe it, and it is driven home in two ways.

First, it is shown by a visible sign. The prophet was to take an earthen jar with him (Jeremiah 19:1), and after he delivered his message, he was to smash it to pieces (Jeremiah 19:10). The same people who heard the sermon were meant to watch the sign. In the chapter before, God had compared this nation to soft clay that is easily spoiled while it is being formed. But some might say, “That no longer fits us. We have long since been shaped and hardened.” The answer is, “Even so, a clay vessel can be broken just as easily in anyone’s hand.” In one way, it is even worse than soft clay, because soft clay, if damaged, can still be reshaped, but once a vessel has hardened and is shattered, it cannot be put back together.

People may be more moved by what they see than by what they only hear. That is one reason symbolic signs were used in teaching in ancient times. In explaining this sign, Jeremiah must repeat what he had already said, and he must point it again to Tophet, the valley where this act took place.

The broken jar showed how easily, forcefully, and completely the Chaldean army would destroy them. They trusted in the strength of their nation and the steadiness of their courage. They thought that made them as hard as bronze. But the prophet shows that it only made them like clay pottery, which may seem hard, yet is brittle and breaks sooner than something that is not so hard. Though they were made to be vessels of honor, they were still vessels of earth, and God would make them feel that if they dishonored Him and failed in the purpose for which they were made. It is God who made them, and He has the power to break them: “I will smash this people and this city, as a potter’s vessel is smashed.” That is the fate of the nations (Psalm 2:9, Revelation 2:27), and now it is the fate of Jerusalem too (Isaiah 30:14). Once a potter’s vessel is broken, it cannot be made whole again. So the ruin of Jerusalem would be total. No one could repair it except the One who broke it. Yet if they returned to Him, then though He has torn, He will heal.

This was done in Tophet to make two things clear. First, Tophet would become the burial place of the slain. They would bury so many there that there would be no room left. The dead would crowd each other, and only a little space would be needed then by those who, while alive, had wanted house after house and field after field. Those who wanted to stand alone in the earth while they were alive, and made everyone else keep their distance, would lie among the crowd after death. There are countless others before them.

Second, Tophet would become a picture of the whole city (Jeremiah 19:12). “I will make this city like Tophet.” As they had filled the valley of Tophet with the dead whom they had sacrificed to idols, so God would fill the city with the dead who would fall as sacrifices to His justice. We read in 2 Kings 23:10 that Josiah defiled Tophet because it had been used for idolatry. He did this, it seems from Jeremiah 19:14, by filling it with human bones. Whatever it had been before, from then on it was seen as a hateful place. Dead bodies and other waste from the city were taken there, and a fire was kept burning there to consume it. That was the condition of the valley when Jeremiah was sent to prophesy there. It was so vile that in the time of Jesus, hell was called Gehenna, a name taken from this valley of Hinnom.

God now says that since that good reform, when Tophet was defiled, did not go far enough and did not truly change the nation, He would do to the city what Josiah had done to Tophet. He would fill it with human bodies and make it a heap of ruins. Even the houses of Jerusalem, including the kings of Judah’s palaces, would be defiled like Tophet (Jeremiah 19:13), and for the same reason, because of the idol worship done there. Since they would not let reformation defile those places, God would defile them by destruction. They had burned incense on their roofs to the host of heaven.

Flat roofs were sometimes used by godly people as useful places for prayer (Acts 10:9). But idolaters used them as high places to sacrifice to false gods, especially the sun, moon, and stars, since they thought being on the roof made them closer to those heavenly bodies and gave them a better view of them. We read of people who worshiped the host of heaven on rooftops (Zephaniah 1:5), and of altars on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room (2 Kings 23:12). That sin on the rooftops brought a curse into the houses, and it would consume them and turn them into a refuse heap like Tophet.

Second, Jeremiah solemnly repeats and confirms what he had said in the court of the Lord’s house (Jeremiah 19:14-15). He returned from Tophet to the temple, which stood above that valley, and there he confirmed, and likely repeated, his message for those who had not heard it. He stood by what he had said. As he often does, he both warns them of coming judgment and gives the reason for it. Both are kept close together here, with a look back to all that has come before.

The judgment threatened is the fulfillment of the prophecies. The people comforted themselves with the idea that God would be kinder than His word, and that the warning was only meant to scare them for a while. But the prophet tells them they are deceiving themselves if they think that. “Thus says the LORD of hosts,” the One who is able to carry out what He says, “I will bring on this city, and on all its towns, every disaster I have pronounced against it.” Whatever people may think, God’s providence will fully match His word. He will appear just as terrible against sin and sinners as Scripture says He is. Human unbelief will not make His promises weaker, or His warnings less certain.

The sin charged against them is their contempt for the prophecies, and that is the cause of the judgment. It is because they have hardened their necks and would not bow to the yoke of God’s commands. They would not hear His words, meaning they would not pay attention to them or obey them.

Note that sinners’ stubbornness in their sinful ways is entirely their own fault. If their necks are hard, it is because they have made them hard themselves. If they are deaf to God’s word, it is because they have shut their own ears. So we must pray that God, by his grace, will rescue us from hard hearts and from disrespect for his word and commands.