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, ver. 4, 5. II. He must describe the particular judgments
which were now coming apace upon them for these sins, ver. 6-9. III. He must
do this in the valley
of Tophet, with great solemnity, and for some
particular reasons, ver. 2, 3. IV. He must summon a company of the elders
together to be witnesses of this, ver. 1. V. He must confirm this, and
endeavour to affect his hearers with it, by a sign, which was the breaking
of an earthen bottle, signifying that they should be dashed to pieces like a
potter's vessel, ver. 10-13. VI. When he had done this in the
valley
of Tophet
he ratified it in the court of the temple,
ver. 14, 15. Thus were all likely means tried to awaken this stupid
senseless people to repentance, that their ruin might be prevented; but all
in vain.
|
The
Desolation of Jerusalem.
|
B.
C. 600.
|
|
|
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 Isa. viii. 2. It is strange that these great men should
be at the beck of a poor prophet, and obey his summons to attend him out of
the city, they know not whither and they knew not why. But, though the
generality of the elders were disaffected to him, yet it is likely that
there were some few among them who looked upon him as a prophet of the Lord,
and would pay this respect to the heavenly vision. Note, Persons of rank and
figure have an opportunity of honouring God, by a diligent attendance on the
ministry of the word and other divine institutions; and they ought to think
it an honour, and no disparagement to themselves, yea, though the
circumstances be mean and despicable. It is certain that the greatest of men
is less than the least of the ordinances of God.
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 (v. 2), so
some render it, and suppose it to look not towards the sun-rising, but the
noon sun--the potter's gate, so some. This sermon must be preached in
that place, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, 1. Because there they
had been guilty of the vilest of their idolatries, the sacrificing of their
children to Moloch, a horrid piece of impiety, which the sight of the place
might serve to remind them of and upbraid them with. 2. Because there they
should feel the sorest of their calamities; there the greatest slaughter
should be made among them; and, it being the common sink of the city, let
them look upon it and see what a miserable spectacle this magnificent city
would be when it should be all like the valley of Tophet. God bids him go
thither, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, when
thou comest thither; whereby it appears (as Mr. Gataker well observed) that
God's messages were frequently not revealed to the prophets before the very
instant of time wherein they were to deliver them.
III. He must give general notice of a general ruin now shortly coming upon
Judah and Jerusalem, v. 3. He must, as those that make proclamation,
begin with an Oyes: Hear you the word of the Lord, though it be a
terrible word, for you may thank yourselves if it be so. Both rulers and
ruled must attend to it, at their peril; the kings of Judah, the king
and his sons, the king and his princes and privy-counsellors, must hear the
word of the King of kings, for, high as they are, he is above them. The inhabitants
of Jerusalem also must hear what God has to say to them. Both princes
and people have contributed to the national guilt and must concur in the
national repentance, or they will both share in the national ruin. Let them
all know that the Lord of hosts, who is therefore able to do what he
threatens, though he is the God of Israel, nay, because he is so,
will therefore punish them in the first place for their iniquities (Amos
iii. 2): He will bring evil upon this place (upon Judah and
Jerusalem) so surprising, and so dreadful, that whosoever hears
it, his ears shall tingle; whosoever hears the prediction of it,
hears the report and representation of it, it shall make such an impression
of terror upon him that he shall still think he hears it sounding in his
ears and shall not be able to get it out of his mind. The ruin of Eli's
house is thus described (1 Sam. iii. 11), and of Jerusalem, 2 Kings xxi. 12.
IV. He must plainly tell them what their sins were for which God had this
controversy with them, v. 4, 5. They are charged with apostasy from
God (They have forsaken me) and abuse of the privileges of the
visible church, and which they had been dignified--They have estranged
this place. Jerusalem (the holy city), the temple (the holy house),
which was designed for the honour of God and the support of his kingdom
among men, they had alienated from those purposes, and (as some render the
word) they had strangely abused. They had so polluted both with their
wickedness that God had disowned both, and abandoned them to ruin. He
charges them with an affection for and the adoration of false gods,
such as neither they nor their fathers have known, such as never had
recommended themselves to their belief and esteem by any acts of power or
goodness done for them or their ancestors, as that God had abundantly done
whom they forsook; yet they took them at a venture for their gods; nay,
being fond of change and novelty, they liked them the better for their being
upstarts, and new fashions in religion were as grateful to their fancies as
in other things. They also stand charged with murder, wilful murder, from
malice prepense: They have filled this place with the blood of innocents.
It was Manasseh's sin (2 Kings xxiv. 4), which the Lord would not pardon.
Nay, as if idolatry and murder, committed separately, were not bad enough
and affront enough to God and man, they have put them together, have
consolidated them into one complicated crime, that of burning their children
in the fire to Baal (v. 5), which was the most insolent defiance to
all the laws both of natural and revealed religion that ever mankind was
guilty of; and by it they openly declared that they loved their new gods
better than ever they loved the true God, though they were such cruel
task-masters that they required human sacrifices (inhuman I should call
them), which the Lord Jehovah, whose all lives and souls are, never demanded
from his worshippers; he never spoke of such a thing, nor came it
into his mind. See ch. vii. 31.
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, ch.
vii. 32) that this valley of the son of Hinnom shall acquire a new
name, the valley of slaughter (v. 6), for (v. 7)
multitudes shall fall there by the sword, when either they
sally out upon the besiegers and are repulsed or attempt to make their
escape and are seized: They shall fall before their enemies,
who not only endeavour to make themselves masters of their houses and
estates, but have such an implacable enmity to them that they seek their
lives; they thirst after their blood, and, when they are dead, will not
allow a cartel for the burying of the slain, but their carcases shall
be meat for the fowls of the heaven and beasts of the earth. What a
dismal place will the valley of Tophet be then! And as for those that remain
within the city, and will not capitulate with the besiegers, they shall
perish for want of food, when first they have eaten the flesh of their
sons and daughters, and dearest friends, through the straitness
wherewith their enemies shall straiten them, v. 9. This was
threatened in the law as an instance of the extremity to which the judgments
of God should reduce them (Lev. xxvi. 29, Deut. xxviii. 53) and was
accomplished, Lam. iv. 10. And, lastly, the whole city shall
be desolate, the houses laid in ashes, the inhabitants slain or taken
prisoners; there shall be no resort to it, nor any thing in it but what
looks rueful and horrid; so that every one that passes by shall be
astonished (v. 8), as he had said before, ch. xviii. 16.
That place which holiness had made the joy of the whole earth sin had
made the reproach and shame of the whole earth.
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 (v. 7): I will make void the counsel of Judah
and Jerusalem (of the princes and senators of Judah and Jerusalem) in
this place, in the royal palace, which lay on the south side of the
city, not far from the place where the prophet now stood. Note, There is no
fleeing from God's justice but by fleeing to his mercy. Those that will not
make good God's counsel, by humbling themselves under his mighty hand, shall
find that God will make void their counsel and blast their projects, which
they think ever so well concerted for their own preservation. There is no
counsel or strength against the Lord.
|
The
Desolation of Jerusalem.
|
B.
C. 600.
|
|
|
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 foregoing verses is here enforced,
that it might gain credit, two ways:--
I.
By a visible sign. The prophet was to take along with him an earthen
bottle (v. 1), and, when he had delivered his message, he was to break
the bottle to pieces (v. 10), and the same that were auditors of
the sermon must be spectators of the sign. He had compared this people, in
the chapter before, to the potter's clay, which is easily marred in the
making. But some might say, "It is past that with us; we have been made
and hardened long since." "And what though you be," says he,
"the potter's vessel is as soon broken in the hand of any man as the
vessel while it is soft clay is marred in the potter's hand, and its case
is, in this respect, much worse, that the vessel while it is soft clay,
though it be marred, may be moulded again, but, after it is hardened, when
it is broken it can never be pieced again." Perhaps what they see will
affect them more than what they only hear talk of; that is the intention of
sacramental signs, and teaching by symbols was anciently used. In the
explication of this sign he must inculcate what he had before said, with a
further reference to the place where this was done, in the valley of Tophet.
1. As the bottle was easily, irresistibly, and irrecoverably broken by the
Chaldean army, v. 11. They depended much upon the firmness of their
constitution, and the fixedness of their courage, which they thought
hardened them like a vessel of brass; but the prophet shows that all that
did but harden them like a vessel of earth, which, though hard, is brittle
and sooner broken than that which is not so hard. Though they were made
vessels of honour, still they were vessels of earth, and so they shall be
made to know if they dishonour God and themselves, and serve not the
purposes for which they were made. It is God himself, who made them, that
resolves to unmake them: I will break this people and this city, dash
them in pieces like a potter's vessel; the doom of the heathen (Ps.
ii. 9, Rev. ii. 27), but now Jerusalem's doom, Isa. xxx. 14. A potter's
vessel, when once broken, cannot be made whole again, cannot be
cured, so the word is. The ruin of Jerusalem shall be an utter ruin; no
hand can repair it but his that broke it; and if they return to him, though
he has torn, he will heal. 2. This was done in Tophet, to signify two
things:-- (1.) That Tophet should be the receptacle of the slain: They
shall bury in Tophet till there be no place to bury any more there; they
shall jostle for room to lay their dead, and a very little room will then
serve those who, while they lived, laid house to house and field to
field. Those that would be placed alone in the midst of the earth
while they were above ground, and obliged all about them to keep their
distance, must lie with the multitude when they are underground, for there
are innumerable before them. (2.) That Tophet should be a resemblance of the
whole city (v. 12): I will make this city as Tophet. As they
had filled the valley of Tophet with the slain which they sacrificed to
their idols, so God will fill the whole city with the slain that shall fall
as sacrifices to the justice of God. We read (2 Kings xxiii. 10) of Josiah's
defiling Tophet, because it had been abused to idolatry, which he did (as
should seem, v. 14) by filling it with the bones of men; and,
whatever it was before, thenceforward it was looked upon as a detestable
place. Dead carcases, and other filth of the city, were carried thither, and
a fire was continually kept there for the burning of it. This was the
posture of that valley when Jeremiah was sent thither to prophesy; and so
execrable a place was it looked upon to be that, in the language of our
Saviour's time, hell was called, in allusion to it, Gehenna, the valley
of Hinnom. "Now" (says God) "since that blessed
reformation, when Tophet was defiled, did not proceed as it ought to have
done, nor prove a thorough reformation, but though the idols in Tophet were
abolished and made odious those in Jerusalem remained, therefore will I do
with the city as Josiah did by Tophet, fill it with the bodies of men, and
make it a heap of rubbish." Even the houses of Jerusalem, and
those of the kings of Judah, the royal palaces not excepted, shall
be defiled as the place of Tophet (v. 13), and for the same
reason, because of the idolatries that have been committed there; since they
will not defile them by a reformation, God will defile them by a
destruction, because upon the roofs of their houses they have
burnt incense unto the host of heaven. The flat roofs of their houses
were sometimes used by devout people as convenient places for prayer (Acts
x. 9), and by idolaters they were used as high places, on which they
sacrificed to strange gods, especially to the host of heaven, the
sun, moon, and stars, that there they might be so much nearer to them and
have a clearer and fuller view of them. We read of those that worshipped
the host of heaven upon the house-tops (Zeph. i. 5), and of altars on
the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, 2 Kings xxiii. 12. This sin upon
the house-tops brought a curse into the house, which consumed it, and made
it a dunghill like Tophet.
II. By a solemn recognition and ratification of what he had said in the
court of the Lord's house, v. 14, 15. The prophet returned from
Tophet to the temple, which stood upon the hill over that valley, and there
confirmed, and probably repeated, what he had said in the valley of Tophet,
for the benefit of those who had not heard it; what he had said he would
stand to. Here, as often before, he both assures them of judgments coming
upon them and assigns the cause of them, which was their sin. Both these are
here put together in a little compass, with a reference to all that had gone
before. 1. The accomplishment of the prophecies is here the judgment
threatened. The people flattered themselves with a conceit that God would be
better than his word, that the threatening was but to frighten them and keep
them in awe a little; but the prophet tells them that they deceive
themselves if they think so: For thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is
able to make his words good, I will bring upon this city, and upon all
her towns, all the smaller cities that belong to Jerusalem the
metropolis, all the evil that I have pronounced against it. Note,
Whatever men may think to the contrary, the executions of Providence will
fully answer the predictions of the word, and God will appear as terrible
against sin and sinners as the scripture makes him; nor shall the unbelief
of men make either his promises or his threatenings of no effect or of less
effect than they were thought to be of. 2. The contempt of the prophecies is
here the sin charged upon them, as the procuring cause of this judgment. It
is because they have hardened their necks, and would not bow and bend
them to the yoke of God's commands, would not hear my words, that is,
would not heed them and yield obedience to them. Note, The obstinacy of
sinners in their sinful ways is altogether their own fault; if their necks
are hardened, it is their own act and deed, they have hardened them; if they
are deaf to the word of God, it is because they have stopped their own ears.
We have need therefore to pray that God, by his grace, would deliver us from
hardness of heart and contempt of his word and commandments.
