Jeremiah 19:4

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; THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME - (). ESTRANGED THIS PLACE - devoted it to the worship of strange gods; alienating a portion of the sacred city from God, the rightful Lord of the temple, city, and whole land. GODS WHOM ... NOR THEIR FATHERS HAVE KNOWN - namely, the godly among their fathers; their ungodly fathers God makes no account of. BLOOD OF INNOCENTS - slain in honour of Moloch (; )....

The reason is given why God would so severely deal with that place. We indeed know that hypocrites are ever ready with their answer; as soon as God threatens them, they bark and bring forward their evasions. The Prophet then shews that the judgment announced would be just, lest the Jews should pretend that it was extreme. God first complains that he had been forsaken by them, because they had changed the worship which had been prescribed in his Law. And this is what ought to be carefully considered; for no one would have willingly confessed what Jeremiah charged upon them all; they would have said, — “We have not forsaken God, for we are the children of Abraham; but what we wish to do is to add to his worship; and why should it be deemed a reproach to us, if we are not content with our own simple form of worship, and add various other forms? and we worship God not only in the Temple, but...

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....

Verse Jeremiah 19:4. _ESTRANGED THIS PLACE_] Ye have devoted my temple to a widely different purpose from that for which it was erected....

HAVE ESTRANGED THIS PLACE - They have not recognized the sanctity of this place, but have treated it as a strange place, by worshipping in it strange gods. INNOCENTS - i. e., guiltless persons....

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

BECAUSE THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME,.... My worship, as the Targum; they had apostatized from God, relinquished his service, neglected and despised his word and ordinances, and left the religion they had been brought up in, and was agreeable to the will of God. This, with what follows, contain reasons of the Lord's threatening them to bring evil upon them, as before: AND HAVE ESTRANGED THIS PLACE; or made a strange place of it, so that it could scarcely be known to be the same, nor would the Lord own it as his; meaning either the city of Jerusalem, to which the prophet was near, and could point to it; or the temple, which was in sight, and which they had strangely abused, by offering strange sacrifices to strange gods; or the valley of Hinnom, the spot he was upon, and which they had alienated from its original use: AND HAVE BURNT INCENSE IN IT UNTO OTHER GODS; to strange gods, the gods of t...

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

FORSAKEN ME. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 28:20; Deuteronomy 32:15). Compare Jeremiah 5:7; Jeremiah 5:19. App-92. WHOM... THEY... HAVE KNOWN. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 32:17). INNOCENTS. people, not merely babes....