Jeremiah 43:9 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln. — Better, in the mortar on the platform. There seems something incongruous in the idea of a brickkiln, or a place for baking bricks, at the entrance of a royal palace; nor is it easy to see why Nebuchadrezzar should have chosen it as a place for his throne. It seems better, with Hitzig, Furst, and others, to take the Hebrew word, which occurs only here and in 2 Samuel 12:31 and Nahum 3:14, as meaning a structure of brick, a dais or raised pavement, like the Gabbatha or Pavement on which Pilate sat (John 19:13), in front of the entrance of the palace, on which the king naturally placed his throne when he sat in judgment or received petitions. Assyrian and Babylonian monuments present many instances of kings thus seated. As making his prediction more vivid, the prophet places stones in the mortar or cement (not “clay”) with which the mass was covered, and conceals them apparently with a fresh coat of mortar. There they were to remain till his prediction should be fulfilled. The symbolic act was of the same type as the breaking of the potter’s vessel in Jeremiah 19:10, and the yoke worn on the prophet’s shoulders (Jeremiah 27:2), and Ezekiel’s digging through the wall (Ezekiel 12:7). It may be noted that our version follows Luther in translating “brickkiln.” The LXX. evades the difficulty by taking refuge in vague terms” in the vestibule (πρόθυρα), in the gate of the house,” and the Vulgate gives “in the crypt which is under the brick walls.”