New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Jeremiah 19
1
The Lord said to me, "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people. Also tell some of the priests to go with you.
Reference
2
Go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Stand near the entrance of the gate where broken pieces of pottery are thrown away. "There announce the message I give you.
Reference
📍 Potsherd Gate
3
Tell the people, 'Listen to the Lord's message, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. The Lord who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, "Listen! I am going to bring trouble on Jerusalem. It will be so horrible that it will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring.
Reference
4
" ' "My people have deserted me. They have made this city a place where other gods are worshiped. They have burned sacrifices to them here. They and their people and the kings of Judah had never had anything to do with those gods before. My people have also filled this place with the blood of those who are not guilty of anything.
Reference
Blood
Jeremiah 2:34
2 Kings 21:16
Isaiah 59:7
Parallel theme
Isaiah 65:11
Deuteronomy 28:20
Jeremiah 2:13
Jeremiah 17:13
References God
Jeremiah 7:9
Jeremiah 2:19
Jeremiah 11:13
5
They have built the high places where they worship Baal. There they sacrifice their children in the fire as offerings to Baal. That is something I did not command or talk about. It did not even enter my mind.
Reference
6
" ' "So watch out!" announces the Lord. "The days are coming when people will not call this place Topheth anymore. And they will not call it the Valley of Ben Hinnom either. Instead, they will call it the Valley of Death.
Reference
7
" ' "In this place I will make the plans of Judah and Jerusalem as useless as a broken jar. I will use their enemies to kill my people with swords. They will die at the hands of those who want to take their lives. I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the air and the wild animals.
Reference
Parallel theme
Leviticus 26:17
Jeremiah 34:20
Jeremiah 7:33
Word
Jeremiah 16:4
Jeremiah 15:2
Jeremiah 15:9
8
" ' "I will destroy this city completely. People will make fun of it. All those who pass by it will be shocked. They will laugh at its people because of all of their wounds.
Reference
Parallel theme
Jeremiah 49:13
1 Kings 9:8
Jeremiah 50:13
Zephaniah 2:15
Sin
Jeremiah 18:16
Jeremiah 25:18
9
I will make the people of this city eat the dead bodies of their sons and daughters. And they will eat one another. They will do it because things will be so bad during the attack. The enemies who want to take their lives will bring all of that trouble on them." '
Reference
10
"Jeremiah, break the jar while those who go with you are watching.
Reference
Parallel theme
Jeremiah 19:1
11
Tell them, 'The Lord who rules over all says, "This potter's jar is smashed and can't be repaired. And I will smash this nation and this city. People will bury their dead in Topheth. But they will run out of room.
Reference
Parallel theme
Psalm 2:9
Isaiah 30:14
Lamentations 4:2
Revelation 2:27
References Lord
Jeremiah 13:14
12
Here is what I will do to Jerusalem and those who live here," announces the Lord. "I will make this city like Topheth.
13
The houses in Jerusalem will be made 'unclean' like Topheth. So will the houses of the kings of Judah. All of those people burned incense on their roofs to all of the stars. They poured out drink offerings to other gods." ' "
Reference
Kingdom
2 Kings 23:12
Parallel theme
Zephaniah 1:5
Psalm 74:7
2 Kings 23:10
References God
Deuteronomy 4:19
Psalm 79:1
Sacrifice
Jeremiah 32:29
Jeremiah 7:18
Jeremiah 44:18
14
Then I returned from Topheth. That's where the Lord had sent me to prophesy. I stood in the courtyard of the Lord's temple. I spoke to all of the people. I said,
Reference
15
"The Lord who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, 'Listen! I am going to punish this city and the villages that are around it. I am going to bring against them all of the trouble I have announced. That is because my people were stubborn. They would not listen to what I said.' "
Reference
Summary of Jeremiah 19
Jeremiah 19 presents one of the strongest symbolic warnings in Jeremiah's ministry, as God sends the prophet to the Valley of Ben Hinnom with a clay jar and commands him to publicly announce that Jerusalem's persistent idolatry, injustice, and rejection of God's warnings have brought the nation to the point where judgment is no longer merely a distant possibility but an approaching catastrophe.
The central image is the clay jar, because Jeremiah first carries the vessel as a representation of Jerusalem and then deliberately breaks it before the elders and priests, demonstrating that the city will likewise be shattered through warfare, famine, death, and destruction, with the broken jar emphasizing that the coming devastation will be so severe that Jerusalem cannot simply return to its previous condition as though nothing had happened.
The reason for this judgment is described in particularly serious terms, as Judah has abandoned God, polluted Jerusalem through false worship, built places dedicated to Baal, and even participated in child sacrifice, practices that God explicitly rejects and describes as things He never commanded.
The location itself becomes part of the message, because the Valley of Ben Hinnom—already associated with condemned religious practices—will become known as a place of slaughter, while Jerusalem itself will become an object of horror among surrounding peoples because of the scale of the destruction that will come upon it.
Jeremiah also describes the terrible consequences of a prolonged siege, when hunger becomes so extreme that ordinary social relationships collapse and people become capable of turning against one another, illustrating that the coming judgment will affect not only buildings and political institutions but the most basic structures of human society.
The chapter ends with Jeremiah returning to the Temple courtyard and repeating the warning publicly, making clear that Judah's destruction is not happening because God failed to warn the people but because they repeatedly refused to listen, and the historical fulfillment of this warning would come with the Babylonian conquest, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
The central image is the clay jar, because Jeremiah first carries the vessel as a representation of Jerusalem and then deliberately breaks it before the elders and priests, demonstrating that the city will likewise be shattered through warfare, famine, death, and destruction, with the broken jar emphasizing that the coming devastation will be so severe that Jerusalem cannot simply return to its previous condition as though nothing had happened.
The reason for this judgment is described in particularly serious terms, as Judah has abandoned God, polluted Jerusalem through false worship, built places dedicated to Baal, and even participated in child sacrifice, practices that God explicitly rejects and describes as things He never commanded.
The location itself becomes part of the message, because the Valley of Ben Hinnom—already associated with condemned religious practices—will become known as a place of slaughter, while Jerusalem itself will become an object of horror among surrounding peoples because of the scale of the destruction that will come upon it.
Jeremiah also describes the terrible consequences of a prolonged siege, when hunger becomes so extreme that ordinary social relationships collapse and people become capable of turning against one another, illustrating that the coming judgment will affect not only buildings and political institutions but the most basic structures of human society.
The chapter ends with Jeremiah returning to the Temple courtyard and repeating the warning publicly, making clear that Judah's destruction is not happening because God failed to warn the people but because they repeatedly refused to listen, and the historical fulfillment of this warning would come with the Babylonian conquest, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.