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Jeremiah 19:1

in Jeremiah 19

This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Thus said Jehovah, Go, and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

KJV

Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

This verse in Jeremiah 19

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah · Written before 420.

(Chapter 19, Verse 1) Thus says the Lord: Go, and take the potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests. For the potter's bottle, which is called 'Bocboc' in Hebrew, the Septuagint translated it as 'doliolum'. But divine Scripture wants to instruct the people not only with their ears, but also with their eyes. For what is seen is more retained in the mind than what is heard: 'Take,' he says, 'your little bottle or earthenware jar as a witness.'

This site's exposition

This is what the LORD says

on Jeremiah 19:1-3

The LORD tells Jeremiah to “buy a clay jar from a potter”. He proclaims it in “the Valley of Ben-hinnom” to the kings of Judah. The warning that “the ears of all who hear of it will ring” repeats the words of 1 Samuel 3:11 and 2 Kings 21:12.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

He must confirm this, and endeavour to affect his hearers with it, by a sign, which was the breaking of an earthen bottle, signifying that they should be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel,
Thus saith the Lord, go and get a potter's earthen bottle,....

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

Get (i. e., purchase) a potter’s earthen bottle - The “bottle” was a flask with a long neck, and took its name from the noise made by liquids in running out. The ancients - These “elders” were the regularly constituted representatives of the people (see Jer 29:1; Num 11:16), and the organization lasted down to our Saviour’s time Mat 26:47. Similarly the priests had also their representatives 2Ki 19:2. Accompanied thus by the representatives of Church and State, the prophet was to carry the earthen bottle, the symbol of their mean origin and frail existence, outside the walls of Jerusalem.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

bottle--Hebrew, bakuk, so called from the gurgling sound which it makes when being emptied. ancients--elders. As witnesses of the symbolic action (Jer 19:10; Isa 8:1, 2), that the Jews might not afterwards plead ignorance of the prophecy.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle - This discourse was also delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim. Under the type of breaking a potter’s earthen bottle or jug, Jeremiah shows his enemies that the word of the Lord should stand, that Jerusalem should be taken and sacked, and they all carried into captivity. Ancients of the priests - The chiefs of the twenty-four classes which David had established. See 1Ch 24:4.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • כֹּ֚הthus

    kohH3541 →577 times

  • אָמַ֣רhe said

    ʾamarH559 →5305 times

  • יְהוָ֔הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • הָל֛וֹךְgo

    halokhH1980 →1546 times

  • וְקָנִ֥יתָand you will buy

    vekanitaH7069 →84 times

  • בַקְבֻּ֖קa bottle of

    vakbukH1228 →

  • יוֹצֵ֣רa potter of

    yotzerH3335 →62 times

  • חָ֑רֶשׂearthenware

    charesH2789 →

  • וּמִזִּקְנֵ֣יand some of [the] elders of

    umizikneiH2205 →178 times

  • הָעָ֔םthe people

    haamH5971 →1873 times

  • וּמִזִּקְנֵ֖יand some of [the] elders of

    umizikneiH2205 →178 times

  • הַכֹּהֲנִֽים׃the priests

    hakohanimH3548 →750 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Isaiah 30:14

    It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a…

    it leads to

    • Psalms 2:9

      You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”

    • Jeremiah 19:10–11

      Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you,

  • Through

    Lamentations 4:2

    How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 30:14

      It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a…

    • Jeremiah 19:11

      and you are to proclaim to them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I will shatter this nation and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again…

    • Romans 9:21–23

      Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?

  • Through

    Numbers 11:16

    Then the LORD said to Moses, “Bring Me seventy of the elders of Israel known to you as leaders and officers of the people. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting and have them…

    it leads to

    • Exodus 24:1

      Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance.

    • Exodus 24:9

      Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,

    • Genesis 46:27

      And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Jeremiah

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt, 1630. Public domain.
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt, 1630. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.