Jeremiah 19:12
in Jeremiah 19This is what I will do to this place and to its residents, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof, even making this city as Topheth:
KJV
Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
⋯
This verse in Jeremiah 19
Commentary
5 notes on this verse(Verse 12.) And they will bury (or be buried) in Topheth, because there is no other place to bury. Thus I will do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, and I will make this city like Topheth (or like ruins), and the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like Topheth (or like ruins). But what is inserted in the Septuagint: All the houses of the kings of Judah, like Topheth, is not found in the Hebrew. And it follows:
This site's exposition
break the bottle in the sight of the men
on Jeremiah 19:10-13
The bottle is smashed in front of the witnesses as the sign's final act, and the word given with it, that cannot be made whole again, sets this chapter against chapter 18's wet clay on the wheel: soft clay can be reworked, but a fired vessel once broken stays broken, the same material shown at two different stages of Jeremiah's own preaching. The dead are to be buried in Tophet itself until there is no more room, and the houses of Jerusalem and of Judah's kings are declared defiled like Tophet because incense was burned on their very rooftops to the host of heaven. That astral worship on the housetops is the same practice the book returns to at 8:2 and again in Egypt at 44:17-25, a habit that outlasted every warning given against it.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): I will make this city as Tophet. As they had filled the valley of Tophet with the slain which they sacrificed to their idols, so God will fill the whole city with the slain that shall fall as sacrifices to the justice of God.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
And even make this city as Tophet - A place of slaughter and destruction.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
this city like the Topheth All of it will be full of the slain just as the Topheth, where they slay the children for Molech.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
( which can no longer be repaired This refers to the people, but the city I will make like the Topheth and purify it in the future.)
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כֵּֽן־ | ken- | thus | H3651 → | 771 times |
| אֶעֱשֶׂ֞ה | ʾeeseh | I will do | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| לַמָּק֥וֹם | lamakom | to the place | H4725 → | 401 times |
| הַזֶּ֛ה | hazeh | <the> this | H2088 → | 1180 times |
| נְאֻם־ | neum- | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| וּלְיֽוֹשְׁבָ֑יו | uleyoshevav | and to inhabitants its | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| וְלָתֵ֛ת | velatet | and to make | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָעִ֥יר | hair | the city | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| הַזֹּ֖את | hazot | <the> this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| כְּתֹֽפֶת׃ | ketofet | like Topheth | H8612 → | 9 times |
כֵּֽן־thus
ken-H3651 →771 times
אֶעֱשֶׂ֞הI will do
ʾeesehH6213 →2628 times
לַמָּק֥וֹםto the place
lamakomH4725 →401 times
הַזֶּ֛ה<the> this
hazehH2088 →1180 times
נְאֻם־[the] utterance of
neum-H5002 →376 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
וּלְיֽוֹשְׁבָ֑יוand to inhabitants its
uleyoshevavH3427 →1079 times
וְלָתֵ֛תand to make
velatetH5414 →2011 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הָעִ֥ירthe city
hairH5892 →1090 times
הַזֹּ֖את<the> this
hazotH2063 →603 times
כְּתֹֽפֶת׃like Topheth
ketofetH8612 →9 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 10:13When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from…
it leads to
- Psalms 135:7
He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
- Job 38:22
Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,
- Job 38:34–35
Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
- Psalms 18:13
The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded— hailstones and coals of fire.
- Psalms 135:7
Through
Jeremiah 11:5This was in order to establish the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is to this day.” “Amen, LORD,” I answered.
it leads to
- Psalms 105:9–11
the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac.
- Deuteronomy 7:12–13
If you listen to these ordinances and keep them carefully, then the LORD your God will keep His covenant and the loving devotion that He swore to your fathers.
- Jeremiah 28:6
“Amen!” Jeremiah said. “May the LORD do so! May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied, and may He restore the articles of His house and all the exiles back to this place…
- Deuteronomy 6:3
Hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers,…
- Psalms 105:9–11
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.