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Jeremiah 19

ירמיהו פרק י״ט

Section: נביאים · נביאים אחרונים | Book: Jeremiah | Chapter: 19 of 52 | Day: 232 of 742

Date: October 1, 2026

קלאוד על הנ״ך

Chapter 19 is the second half of a diptych. In chapter 18 Jeremiah was sent down to the potter’s house and watched a vessel spoil in the craftsman’s hands, only to be pressed back into a lump and reworked into something else; the lesson there was that clay still on the wheel remains negotiable, that a decree of ruin can be revoked if a nation turns, and that a promise of good can be withdrawn if it does not. Here the imagery returns, but the material has changed state. Jeremiah is told to buy a finished earthen flask (בקבק יוצר חרש) — fired, hardened, no longer plastic — and the sign-act he performs with it is not remaking but shattering. Once the kiln has done its work, the only thing that can be done to a bad vessel is to break it, and the break is permanent: כאשר ישבר את כלי היוצר אשר לא יוכל להרפה עוד (19:11). The two chapters together map the whole theology of repentance and its expiry date.

The staging of the oracle is as deliberate as its imagery. Jeremiah is to take elders of the people and elders of the priests — Radak explains that they are brought along precisely so that they will hear the prophecy and see the flask broken before their eyes, serving as witnesses to the sign — and to go out to the Valley of Ben-Hinnom at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Rashi identifies שער החרסית with the Dung Gate, where broken sherds were thrown out; the prophet carries a clay vessel to the place where clay vessels go to die, and the setting preaches before he opens his mouth. The valley itself is the scene of the crime: it is where the high places of the Baal stood and where children were burned. The word of judgment is delivered on the very ground that provoked it.

The indictment in verses 4 through 5 is layered. They have forsaken Me; they have estranged this place (וינכרו את המקום הזה) — Rashi glosses that they made it foreign before Him, and Metzudat David sharpens the point: they did not offer to God there at all, as though the land were not His, and instead burned incense to other gods. Then they filled the place with the blood of the innocent, which Metzudat David reads concretely as the blood of the children offered up. The climax is verse 5, the shrines of the Baal built to burn sons in the fire, followed by the threefold divine denial: אשר לא צויתי ולא דברתי ולא עלתה על לבי. Metzudat David unpacks the three clauses as a descending scale — I never commanded it, I never even said it without commanding, and it never so much as entered My mind to ask such a thing — a rhetorical structure that forecloses any claim that child sacrifice was a distorted form of service to the God of Israel rather than an abomination wholly foreign to Him.

What follows is a sequence of reversals in which each sin returns as its own punishment. The Tofet, whose name Metzudat David derives from the drums (תופים) beaten so that a father would not hear his son’s cries in the fire, will be renamed the Valley of Slaughter (גיא ההרגה). The counsel of Judah and Jerusalem will be emptied out — Rashi notes that the verb ובקותי is chosen for its sound, an emptying that echoes the בקבק about to be smashed, so that the pun carries the theology. Those who gave their children to be consumed will themselves be consumed: their corpses become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, and in the siege they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters (19:9). The place where they buried children in fire becomes the place where there is no room left to bury (19:11), and the houses whose roofs held altars to the host of heaven become as impure as the Tofet itself.

The chapter ends by refusing to let the sign stay in the valley. Jeremiah comes back from the Tofet, where God had sent him to prophesy, and stands in the court of the House of the LORD to repeat the message to all the people (19:14-15). The movement from the margin to the center is the point: the oracle delivered over broken pottery outside the Dung Gate is now proclaimed in the Temple precincts, to the very congregation that assumed the Temple’s presence guaranteed its safety — the illusion Jeremiah had already attacked in the Temple sermon of chapter 7. Metzudat David notes that the stiffened neck of verse 15 is a figure for an inability to turn the face back toward God, and Radak observes that even here God is still called the God of Israel, because not all of them have rebelled and some of the rebels will yet return. That quiet qualification, tucked into the last verse of the most implacable chapter so far, is what makes the standing in the Temple court intelligible: the flask is broken, but the prophet is still speaking, and speech to a people presumes someone who might hear. The immediate consequence, in chapter 20, is that Pashchur the priest hears instead — and has Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks.

פרק י״ט · Chapter 19

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה הָלֹ֛ךְ וְקָנִ֥יתָ בַקְבֻּ֖ק יוֹצֵ֣ר חָ֑רֶשׂ וּמִזִּקְנֵ֣י הָעָ֔ם וּמִזִּקְנֵ֖י הַכֹּהֲנִֽים׃

English:

Thus said GOD: Go buy a jug of potter’s ware. And [take] some of the elders of the people and the priests,

God commands Jeremiah to perform a sign-act: buy a finished earthen flask from a potter and bring along elders of the people and elders of the priests. Radak explains that the elders are taken so that they will hear the prophecy and watch the flask shattered before their eyes, making them witnesses to the sign; Rashi notes that the phrase 'and of the elders of the people' hangs on the opening 'Go', meaning go and take them with you.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
בקבוק. צלוחית: יוצר חרש. כלומר של יוצר שהוא של חרש: ומזקני העם. הלוך עמך ומזקני העם מוסב על הלוך ומזקני העם עמך:
a jug Heb. בַּקְבֻּק. potter's earthen That is to say, of a potter, which is of earthenware. and some of the elders of the people take along with you. "And of the elders of the people" refers back to 'Go,' and some of the elders of the people with you.

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

וְיָצָ֙אתָ֙ אֶל־גֵּ֣יא בֶן־הִנֹּ֔ם אֲשֶׁ֕ר פֶּ֖תַח שַׁ֣עַר (החרסות) [הַחַרְסִ֑ית] וְקָרָ֣אתָ שָּׁ֔ם אֶת־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים אֲשֶׁר־אֲדַבֵּ֥ר אֵלֶֽיךָ׃

English:

and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom—at the entrance of the Harsith Gate —and proclaim there the words that I will speak to you.

The destination is the Valley of Ben-Hinnom at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate -- Rashi and Metzudat David both identify שער החרסית with the Dung Gate, where broken sherds were cast out. Jeremiah carries a clay vessel to the place where clay vessels are discarded, and to the valley where children were burned, so that the setting itself preaches before a word is spoken.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
שער החרסית. שער האשפות ששם זורקין חרסים הנשברים וכן ת"י תרע קילקלתא:
the Harsith Gate The Dung Gate, where broken pottery is cast, and Jonathan rendered in this manner תְרַע קִלְקַלְתָּא.

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

וְאָֽמַרְתָּ֙ שִׁמְע֣וּ דְבַר־יְהֹוָ֔ה מַלְכֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה וְיֹשְׁבֵ֖י יְרוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם כֹּֽה־אָמַר֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה צְבָא֜וֹת אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל הִנְנִ֨י מֵבִ֤יא רָעָה֙ עַל־הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר כׇּל־שֹׁמְעָ֖הּ תִּצַּ֥לְנָה אׇזְנָֽיו׃

English:

Say: “Hear the word of GOD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of all who hear about it will tingle.

The oracle opens by addressing the kings of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem with a disaster so appalling that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Rashi and Radak explain תצלנה as a ringing or quivering motion, the root used for cymbals (מצלתים), and Metzudat David describes it as ears trembling at the report.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
תצלנה. טינטני"ר בלעז ל' מצלתים (ד"ה א טו) בצלצלי שמע (תהלים קנ):
his ears will tingle (tinter in French), an expression similar to "cymbals" (מְצִלְתַּיִם) (Neh. 12: 27), "with loud sounding cymbals (בְּצִלְצְלֵי ֹשָמַע)" (Psalms 150:5).

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

יַ֣עַן ׀ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עֲזָבֻ֗נִי וַֽיְנַכְּר֞וּ אֶת־הַמָּק֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ וַיְקַטְּרוּ־בוֹ֙ לֵאלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֧ר לֹא־יְדָע֛וּם הֵ֥מָּה וַאֲבוֹתֵיהֶ֖ם וּמַלְכֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֑ה וּמָ֥לְא֛וּ אֶת־הַמָּק֥וֹם הַזֶּ֖ה דַּ֥ם נְקִיִּֽם׃

English:

For they and their ancestors and the kings of Judah have forsaken Me, and have made this place alien [to Me]; they have sacrificed in it to other gods whom they have not experienced, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

The indictment begins: they have forsaken God, estranged this place from Him -- Rashi glosses וינכרו as having made it foreign before Him -- and burned incense there to gods neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah had any experience of. Metzudat David sharpens it: they offered nothing to God there at all, as though the land were not His, and the 'blood of the innocent' that fills the place is the blood of the children sacrificed.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
וינכרו. עשאוהו נכרי לפני:
and they estranged They made it strange before Me.

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

וּבָנ֞וּ אֶת־בָּמ֣וֹת הַבַּ֗עַל לִשְׂרֹ֧ף אֶת־בְּנֵיהֶ֛ם בָּאֵ֖שׁ עֹל֣וֹת לַבָּ֑עַל אֲשֶׁ֤ר לֹֽא־צִוִּ֙יתִי֙ וְלֹ֣א דִבַּ֔רְתִּי וְלֹ֥א עָלְתָ֖ה עַל־לִבִּֽי׃ {פ}

English:

They have built shrines to Baal, to put their children to the fire as burnt offerings to Baal—which I never commanded, never decreed, and which never came to My mind.

The charge reaches its climax with the high places of the Baal, built to burn sons in the fire as offerings. The threefold denial -- I never commanded, never spoke, and it never came up on My heart -- is read by Metzudat David as a descending scale: not commanded, not even mentioned without a command, and never so much as entering the divine mind as a thing to ask, which forecloses any claim that child sacrifice was a distorted form of legitimate service.

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

לָכֵ֞ן הִנֵּֽה־יָמִ֤ים בָּאִים֙ נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֔ה וְלֹא־יִקָּרֵא֩ לַמָּק֨וֹם הַזֶּ֥ה ע֛וֹד הַתֹּ֖פֶת וְגֵ֣יא בֶן־הִנֹּ֑ם כִּ֖י אִם־גֵּ֥יא הַהֲרֵגָֽה׃

English:

Assuredly, a time is coming—declares GOD—when this place shall no longer be called Topheth or Valley of Ben-hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter.

The place will be renamed: no longer Tofet or Valley of Ben-Hinnom but Valley of Slaughter (גיא ההרגה). Metzudat David derives Tofet from the drums (תופים) beaten there so a father would not hear his son crying in the fire and be moved to pity, and Ben-Hinnom from the moaning (נהימה) of the burning child -- names born of killing that will now be replaced by a name of killing.

פסוק ז׳ · Verse 7

Hebrew:

וּ֠בַקֹּתִ֠י אֶת־עֲצַ֨ת יְהוּדָ֤ה וִירוּשָׁלַ֙͏ִם֙ בַּמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה וְהִפַּלְתִּ֤ים בַּחֶ֙רֶב֙ לִפְנֵ֣י אֹֽיְבֵיהֶ֔ם וּבְיַ֖ד מְבַקְשֵׁ֣י נַפְשָׁ֑ם וְנָתַתִּ֤י אֶת־נִבְלָתָם֙ לְמַֽאֲכָ֔ל לְע֥וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וּלְבֶהֱמַ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃

English:

“And I will frustrate the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who seek their lives; and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

God will empty out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem so that no plan of escape is found, and they will fall by the sword before their enemies, their corpses left as food for birds and beasts. Rashi notes that the verb ובקותי, an emptying, is chosen to echo the בקבק, the flask Jeremiah is holding -- the pun carries the theology; Metzudat David adds that being left as food means they will not be buried.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ובקותי. ורוקנתי ל' בוקה ומבוקה (נחום ב׳:י״א) ועל שם בקבוק שהוא מדבר בו לקח לשונו כן:
And I will frustrate and I will empty, an expression similar to (Nahum 2:11), "She is empty and void (בּוּקָה וּמְבוּקָה)," and because of the jug (בַּקְבֻּק) about which he is speaking, he adopted this expression.

פסוק ח׳ · Verse 8

Hebrew:

וְשַׂמְתִּי֙ אֶת־הָעִ֣יר הַזֹּ֔את לְשַׁמָּ֖ה וְלִשְׁרֵקָ֑ה כֹּ֚ל עֹבֵ֣ר עָלֶ֔יהָ יִשֹּׁ֥ם וְיִשְׁרֹ֖ק עַל־כׇּל־מַכֹּתֶֽהָ׃

English:

And I will make this city an object of horror and hissing; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and will hiss over all its wounds.

The city itself becomes an object of horror and hissing, with every passerby appalled at its wounds. Metzudat David reads לשמה as astonishment, the stunned reaction of onlookers -- the reversal of a city that was meant to draw the nations toward the House of God.

פסוק ט׳ · Verse 9

Hebrew:

וְהַאֲכַלְתִּ֞ים אֶת־בְּשַׂ֣ר בְּנֵיהֶ֗ם וְאֵת֙ בְּשַׂ֣ר בְּנֹתֵיהֶ֔ם וְאִ֥ישׁ בְּשַׂר־רֵעֵ֖הוּ יֹאכֵ֑לוּ בְּמָצוֹר֙ וּבְמָצ֔וֹק אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָצִ֧יקוּ לָהֶ֛ם אֹיְבֵיהֶ֖ם וּמְבַקְשֵׁ֥י נַפְשָֽׁם׃

English:

And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall devour one another’s flesh—because of the desperate straits to which they will be reduced by their enemies, who seek their life.”

The siege will grow so desperate that people eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and devour one another. Metzudat David explains that it is the famine caused by the siege that drives them to it -- and the measure-for-measure is unmistakable, since those who gave children to the fire will end by consuming their own children themselves.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ובמצוק. לשון צרה כמו צוקה:
the straits An expression of pain, like צוקה.

פסוק י׳ · Verse 10

Hebrew:

וְשָׁבַרְתָּ֖ הַבַּקְבֻּ֑ק לְעֵינֵי֙ הָאֲנָשִׁ֔ים הַהֹלְכִ֖ים אוֹתָֽךְ׃

English:

Then you shall smash the jug in the sight of those who go with you,

פסוק י״א · Verse 11

Hebrew:

וְאָמַרְתָּ֨ אֲלֵיהֶ֜ם כֹּה־אָמַ֣ר ׀ יְהֹוָ֣ה צְבָא֗וֹת כָּ֣כָה אֶשְׁבֹּ֞ר אֶת־הָעָ֤ם הַזֶּה֙ וְאֶת־הָעִ֣יר הַזֹּ֔את כַּאֲשֶׁ֤ר יִשְׁבֹּר֙ אֶת־כְּלִ֣י הַיּוֹצֵ֔ר אֲשֶׁ֛ר לֹא־יוּכַ֥ל לְהֵרָפֵ֖ה ע֑וֹד וּבְתֹ֣פֶת יִקְבְּר֔וּ מֵאֵ֥ין מָק֖וֹם לִקְבּֽוֹר׃

English:

and say to them: “Thus said GOD of Hosts: So will I smash this people and this city, as one smashes a potter’s vessel, which can never be mended. And they shall bury in Topheth until no room is left for burying.

The flask is smashed and the meaning declared: so will God break this people and this city, like a potter's vessel that can never be mended (אשר לא יוכל להרפה עוד). Rashi restricts the irreparable break to the people, since the city will eventually be purified; Metzudat David explains the image as a shattering beyond any repair, and adds that the dead will be buried in Tofet until no room is left -- the place of child-burning becomes a mass grave.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
(אשר לא יוכל להרפה. אהעם קאי אבל העיר אעש' כתופת ואטהר לעתיד):
(which can no longer be repaired This refers to the people, but the city I will make like the Topheth and purify it in the future.)

פסוק י״ב · Verse 12

Hebrew:

כֵּֽן־אֶעֱשֶׂ֞ה לַמָּק֥וֹם הַזֶּ֛ה נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֖ה וּלְיֽוֹשְׁבָ֑יו וְלָתֵ֛ת אֶת־הָעִ֥יר הַזֹּ֖את כְּתֹֽפֶת׃

English:

That is what I will do to this place and its inhabitants—declares GOD. I will make this city like Topheth:

The sign is applied directly: this is what God will do to the place and its inhabitants, making the city itself like Tofet. Rashi and Metzudat David both explain the comparison concretely -- the city will be full of the slain just as Tofet was full of the children slaughtered there.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
העיר הזאת כתופת. כולה מליאה הרוגים כמו התופת שהורגין שם את הילדים למולך:
this city like the Topheth All of it will be full of the slain just as the Topheth, where they slay the children for Molech.

פסוק י״ג · Verse 13

Hebrew:

וְהָי֞וּ בָּתֵּ֣י יְרוּשָׁלַ֗͏ִם וּבָתֵּי֙ מַלְכֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה כִּמְק֥וֹם הַתֹּ֖פֶת הַטְּמֵאִ֑ים לְכֹ֣ל הַבָּתִּ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֨ר קִטְּר֜וּ עַל־גַּגֹּֽתֵיהֶם֙ לְכֹל֙ צְבָ֣א הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וְהַסֵּ֥ךְ נְסָכִ֖ים לֵאלֹהִ֥ים אֲחֵרִֽים׃ {פ}

English:

the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be impure, like that place Topheth—all the houses on the roofs of which offerings were made to the whole host of heaven and libations were poured out to other gods.”

The defilement spreads from the valley into the city: the houses of Jerusalem and of the kings of Judah will be impure like the Tofet. Metzudat David explains that they will become burial places for the slain, and Radak reads לכל הבתים as 'on account of' those houses -- the roofs where incense was offered to the host of heaven and libations poured to other gods are precisely what earns them the comparison.

פסוק י״ד · Verse 14

Hebrew:

וַיָּבֹ֤א יִרְמְיָ֙הוּ֙ מֵֽהַתֹּ֔פֶת אֲשֶׁ֨ר שְׁלָח֧וֹ יְהֹוָ֛ה שָׁ֖ם לְהִנָּבֵ֑א וַֽיַּעֲמֹד֙ בַּחֲצַ֣ר בֵּית־יְהֹוָ֔ה וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֶל־כׇּל־הָעָֽם׃ {ס}         

English:

When Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where GOD had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the House of GOD and said to all the people:

Jeremiah returns from the Tofet, where God had sent him, and stands in the court of the House of the LORD to address all the people. Metzudat David notes that 'to prophesy' refers back to the oracle just given -- the movement from the rubbish gate to the Temple court is the point, carrying the word of shattering into the very precinct whose presence the people assumed guaranteed their safety.

פסוק ט״ו · Verse 15

Hebrew:

כֹּה־אָמַ֞ר יְהֹוָ֤ה צְבָאוֹת֙ אֱלֹהֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הִנְנִ֨י מֵבִ֜י אֶל־הָעִ֤יר הַזֹּאת֙ וְעַל־כׇּל־עָרֶ֔יהָ אֵ֚ת כׇּל־הָ֣רָעָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר דִּבַּ֖רְתִּי עָלֶ֑יהָ כִּ֤י הִקְשׁוּ֙ אֶת־עׇרְפָּ֔ם לְבִלְתִּ֖י שְׁמ֥וֹעַ אֶת־דְּבָרָֽי׃

English:

“Thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring upon this city and upon all its villages all the disaster that I have decreed against it, for they have stiffened their necks and refused to heed My words.”

The oracle is repeated in condensed form: God is bringing upon this city and all its towns every evil He has decreed, because they stiffened their necks rather than listen. Metzudat David reads the stiffened neck as a figure for being unable to turn one's face back toward God, and Radak observes that God is still called 'the God of Israel' here because not all of them have rebelled and some of the rebels will yet return.

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