The Broken Jar

  • 19:2 “Potsherd gate” - where the broken pottery was discarded, and also where the Potter’s shops were found.
  • 19:4 “a foreign place” - they were so far from God, and had so filled the land with foreign gods, that the land was a foreign place. “filled with the blood of the innocent” - a corrupt Department of Justice.
  • 19:6 “no longer be called” - as Topheth, it was the place of child sacrifice. As the valley of ben-hinnom, it was the dump - continually smoldering. As the valley of slaughter, it would be the dumping ground of too many dead bodies to be buried (no earth moving machines for mass graves).
  • 19:7 “ruin the plans” - the Hebrew for “ruin” sounds like that for “jar”.
  • 19:9 “eat their sons and daughters” - a promised curse for disobedience. Deuteronomy 28:53 But also an irony: “You think your gods are hungry to eat your children? I’ll make you hungry enough to eat your children.”
  • 19:10 “shatter” unlike the uncooperative clay, which could be reshaped, the shattering is irreversible.
  • 19:13 “all the houses on whose roof they burned incense and poured drink offerings to other gods” - as painting the lamb’s blood on the lintel protected from judgement, so the rooftop offerings would bring judgement.
  • 19:14 “proclaimed to all the people” - the audience at the Potsherd gate was small.
  • 19:15 “stiffened their necks” - a repentant people are like the soft clay - to be remolded when they go astray. A stiffnecked people are like the hardened clay of the jar - to be broken beyond repair.