Jeremiah 20:1-6 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

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 19:3-9 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. where these were thrown away), that he may warn them of the punishment about to come for their introduction of alien worship, their injustice, and their sacrifice of children by fire. A new name shall be given to the valley (Jeremiah 7:32) to denote the coming slaughter, appalling (Jeremiah 18:16) to behold. As a symbol of this destruction, the prophet is to break the flask he has bought; deaths shall be so numerous that burials will take place even in the defiled valley (2 Kings 23:10) for want of room (Jeremiah 19:11 mg.), and the city itself shall be defiled, because of its Babylonian cults (Jeremiah 32:29). Jeremiah repeats his warning in the Temple (Jeremiah 19:14 f.), with the result that the responsible officer put him in the stocks. To this official Jeremiah gives a symbolic name (Jeremiah 20:3), denoting the terror of his fate and that of his friends at the hands of the Babylonians.

Jeremiah 19:4. estranged this place: i.e. Jerusalem, by the worship of other gods. the blood of innocents: Jeremiah 2:34; 2 Kings 21:16; 2 Kings 24:4.

Jeremiah 19:5. Omit, with LXX, for burnt-offerings unto Baal, since these offerings were made to Molech, Jeremiah 32:35, i.e. probably to Yahweh under this name; cf. Jeremiah 7:31 and the note.

Jeremiah 19:6. Topheth, see on Jeremiah 7:31.

Jeremiah 19:7. make void: playing on the Hebrew word for flask; cf. mg.

Jeremiah 19:8. plagues: strokes or wounds.

Jeremiah 19:9. cf. Deuteronomy 28:53. On the breaking of the flask, cf. Thomson, p. 641; for the significance of such symbolism, see the note on Jeremiah 13:1.

Jeremiah 19:13. The use of the Oriental roof is described in Thomson, p. 42.

Jeremiah 20:2. See Jeremiah 29:26; Acts 16:24; a more modern parallel in Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism, p. 197.

Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 20:1

Jeremiah 20:1-6

1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.

2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.a

4 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

6 And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.