JeremiaKapitel 19

Detta kapitel finns ännu inte på svenska — visar originaltexten.

+ Sekundärtext Grundtext ← Föregående Nästa →Bidra

This is what the LORD said: Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar. Take with you some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests,

and go out to the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words I speak to you.

Say: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am about to bring such disaster on this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will ring.

For they have forsaken me and made this place foreign to me. They have burned incense here to other gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or spoke of, something that never entered my mind.

So look, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

In this place I will pour out and empty the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hand of those who seek their lives, and I will give their corpses as food to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by will be appalled and will hiss at all its wounds.

I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will devour one another's flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies and by those who seek their lives.

Then break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you,

and say to them: This is what the LORD of hosts says: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel that can never be mended again. They will bury the dead in Topheth for lack of any other place to bury.

This is what I will do to this place and to those who live in it, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth.

The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place of Topheth—all the houses on whose roofs they burned incense to the whole host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.

Then Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the LORD's house and said to all the people:

This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am bringing on this city and on all its surrounding towns every disaster I pronounced against it, because they stiffened their necks and refused to listen to my words.

Uppslag

Sammanfattning2

Kapitel 19

Main Theme: God commands Jeremiah to break a clay jar as a symbol of the irreversible judgment against Jerusalem and Judah.

Content: God sends Jeremiah to the Valley of Hinnom near the Potsherd Gate with a clay jar, along with some of the elders of the people and the priests as witnesses. There he proclaims judgment upon Jerusalem because of idolatry, child sacrifice to Baal, and the shedding of innocent blood. Jeremiah breaks the jar as a sign that God will crush the people and the city just as irreparably. The place shall be called "Valley of Slaughter," and during the siege the famine will become so severe that people will eat their own children. Afterwards, Jeremiah repeats this message in the temple courtyard.

Key Words/Images:

Clay Jar: Symbolizes Jerusalem and Judah—once broken, it cannot be repaired, just as the judgment is final.
Valley of Hinnom/Topheth: The site of child sacrifice that will become the "Valley of Slaughter"—a place for mass graves.
Child Sacrifice to Baal: The central sin that provokes God's wrath—something God never commanded.
Stubbornness: The people have "stiffened their necks" and refuse to listen to God's word.

Historisk kontext

Historical and Cultural Context for Jeremiah 19

Places

The Valley of Hinnom (גֵּיא בֶן־הִנֹּם) was a valley south of Jerusalem that had a dark history in Israelite religion. The name means "Valley of the son of Hinnom." Here, Baal worship involving child sacrifice took place under kings Ahaz and Manasseh (2 Kings 16:3; 21:6). The valley later became so associated with evil that the Greek word "Gehenna" (from Hebrew ge-hinnom) was used as a term for hell in the New Testament.

The Potsherd Gate (שַׁעַר הַחַרְסִית) likely refers to a gate in Jerusalem's southern wall that led out toward the Valley of Hinnom. The name (חַרְסִית) may mean "Gate of Earthenware" or "Gate of Potsherds," possibly because potters discarded defective products there, or because potters had workshops nearby. Archaeological excavations have confirmed pottery-making activity in this area.

Events and Customs

Topheth (הַתֹּפֶת) was a specific cultic site in the Valley of Hinnom where children were sacrificed to Molech or Baal. The word may be derived from a term for "hearth" or could be an intentional distortion using the vowels from the Hebrew word for "shame" (boshet). King Josiah had made this place unclean to stop the practice (2 Kings 23:10), but the chapter suggests that idolatry had resumed. Child sacrifice was widespread among the Phoenicians and Canaanites; Phoenician colonies such as Carthage have left archaeological evidence of such practices.

The Clay Jar as a Symbolic Act (בַּקְבֻּק) represents a common prophetic practice. The Hebrew word baqbuq is an onomatopoeic term that mimics the sound of liquid being poured out from a bottle with a narrow neck. Unlike the clay on the potter's wheel in chapter 18 (Jer 18:1-6), which could be reshaped, the fully fired jar is irreversibly destroyed when broken—a powerful illustration of final judgment without any possibility of restoration.

Key Terms

"To Pour Out" (בַקֹּתִי) in verse 7 is a wordplay on the Hebrew word for bottle (baqbuq). God will "pour out" Judah's plans, just as liquid is poured from a bottle. This demonstrates Jeremiah's characteristic use of wordplays to strengthen his message.

Cannibalism During Siege (verse 9) was not merely rhetorical exaggeration but a known reality during prolonged sieges in antiquity. This terrible consequence is described in the curses of Deuteronomy 28:53-57 and was tragically fulfilled during Babylon's siege of Jerusalem (Lam 2:20; 4:10).

Personer1

Ba'al (Canaanite god worshipped by the Israelites)1

Alla personer →

Nyckelord10

Jar — A clay container symbolizing the people of Jerusalem and their fragility.
Prophet — A person who speaks on behalf of God and conveys His message to humanity.
Jerusalem — The capital city of Israel, a central place for Jewish faith and culture.
The word of the Lord — An expression used to describe God's instructions and messages given through prophets.
Valley of Hinnom — A valley south of Jerusalem associated with pagan rituals and child sacrifice.
Topheth — A location in the Valley of Hinnom where idolatry and child sacrifice were practiced.
Thigh bones — Bones from the thigh or leg, here used as a symbol of destruction and death.
Destruction — The process of completely destroying something, often referring to cities and societies in the Bible.
+ 2 till