Jeremiah 19:2

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, VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM - or Tophet, south of Jerusalem, where human victims were offered, and children made to pass through the fire in honour of Moloch. EAST GATE - margin, sun gate, sunrise being in the east. Cocceius objects that the valley of Hinnom, which is said to be "by the entry of" that gate was at the south side. Perhaps 'the sun gate' may mean southern; [Jerome and others take hacharciyt (H2777) from cheres, a potter's vessel, which suits the context, not from cherec (H2775), the sun-the potter's gate]. Through it lay the road to the valley of Hinnom ...

And he adds, _Enter into the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the east gate_, rendered by some “of the earthen gate,” for which I see no reason; but I leave this to be examined by those who are more versed in the language. It is indeed thought that ש, _shin_, is changed here into ס, _samech_; but if we take the word as it is, it means “solar,” for חרס _cheras_, from which חרסית _cherasit_, is derived, signifies the sun; and it seems to have been called the solar gate by way of excellency, because it looked toward the rising sun. (212) I do not yet oppose the idea of those who think that the Prophet alludes to חרש, _cheresh_, of which he had spoken, and that he calls it the east gate, though it was as it were an earthen gate

1-9 The prophet must give notice of ruin coming upon Judah and Jerusalem. Both rulers and ruled must attend to it. That place which holiness made the joy of the whole earth, sin made the reproach and shame of the whole earth. There is no fleeing from God's justice, but by fleeing to his mercy....

THE VALLEY ... - See Jeremiah 7:31 note. THE EAST GATE - Others render “the pottery gate.” Two gates led into the valley of Hinnom, the Fountain-gate at the southeast corner, and the Dung-gate on the southwest side of Zion; some think that “the east gate” was neither of these, but a small or postern gate, used for throwing out rubbish, the valley having been put to this degrading use from the time that Josiah defiled it 2 Kings 23:10. And thus the mean symbol of a proud nation was carried out through a back door to be broken upon the heaps of refuse already cast there....

EXPOSITION With this chapter, Jeremiah 19:1 of the next ought undoubtedly to be connected to complete the narrative. Jeremiah here comes before us performing another symbolical action. By breaking a potter's vessel he foreshows the ruin impending over Jerusalem for the idolatry practiced in the valley of Hinnom. Not (remarks Graf) as if the worship of Moloch had been restored after the death of Josiah; verse 13, in fact, sufficiently shows that the Tophet had, ever since Josiah's time, continued to be an unclean place, and the sins which are here rebuked are the unexpiated abominations of Manasseh's reign (described in Jeremiah 15:4, as the immediate causes of the Captivity). Jeremiah's prophecy on the Tophet is followed by one on the fate of a certain Pashur, a high officer in the temp

AND GO FORTH INTO THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF HINNOM,.... To whom it formerly belonged, and so it was called as early as Joshua's time, Joshua 15:8; from the faith and abomination of the place, and the shocking torments here exercised, "hell", from hence, in the New Testament, is called "Gehenna": here the prophet with the elders were to go, for reasons after mentioned; because here their cruel idolatries were committed, and Jerusalem was to be made like unto it for pollution and bloodshed: WHICH [IS] BY THE ENTRY OF THE EAST GATE; the way to it out of Jerusalem lay through the east gate of the city. The Targum calls it "the dung gate"; through which the filth of the city was carried out, and laid near it, and where lay the potter's sherds; hence some render it the "potsherd" gate m; or rather it should be the potter's gate; for that reason, because the potter's fie

CHAPTER 19 The Broken Bottle _ 1. The broken bottle and the message (Jeremiah 19:1) _ 2. The fate announced in the court of the Lord's house (Jeremiah 19:14) Jeremiah 19:1. He was to get a potter's earthen bottle accompanied by elders and priests, and go to the valley of the son of Hinnom. There he should proclaim the words Jehovah would breathe into him. The message is another judgment message and needs no further comment. In Tophet, the valley of Hinnom, they had worked their abominations, burnt their sons with fire. Now it should become the valley of slaughter, so that their carcasses should be eaten by the fowls and wild beasts. He would cause them to eat the flesh of their

JEREMIAH 19:1 TO JEREMIAH 20:6. THE EARTHENWARE FLASK; JEREMIAH IN THE STOCKS. This section seems to be editorially grouped with the last because of the further reference to pottery; the original prophecy may have been expanded in Jeremiah 19:3 by a later writer. It seems more natural to date these incidents after the Temple-sermon (Jeremiah 19:7) rather than before it; in either case, in the early years of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah is to take representatives of Judah to the Valley of Hinnom (Jeremiah 7:31), by the gate of potsherds (_mg.; i.e._ wh

THE EAST GATE: i.e. the pottery gate. See App-59. Not from _Haras_. east, but from _heres_. a potsherd. See note on Isaiah 19:19 and App-81....

_the valley of the son of Hinnom_ See on ch. Jeremiah 7:31. _the gate Harsith_ rather, as mg. _the gate of potsherds_. Apparently so called from the fragments of broken pottery cast here as refuse "or perhaps crushed, as it is now, on a flat rock, with heavy stone rollers, into dust from which a cement is made, used for plastering cisterns. The place where this is now done is near the Birket es-Sultan, a pool at the S. W. of the city, in the upper part of what was probably the ancient -Valley of Hinnom." " Dr., who also quotes _Pal. Expl. Fund, Quart. Statement_for 1904, p. 136. It is thought to be identical with the "dung" gate (Nehemiah 2:13; Nehemiah 3:13 f.,...