Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? — Better, a broken piece of handiwork. The word is not the same as that elsewhere rendered “idol,” though connected with it, and the imagery which underlies the words is not that of an idol which men have worshipped and flung away, but of the potter (as in Jeremiah 19:11) rejecting and breaking what his own hands have made. (Comp. Psalms 2:9; Psalms 31:12.) The question implies an affirmative answer. The prophet speaks as identifying himself with those who gazed with wonder and pity at the doom which fell on one so young, and yet not the less does he pronounce that doom to be inevitable.

Continues after advertising
Continues after advertising