Jeremiah 19:1-2 New English Translation

An Object Lesson from a Broken Clay Jar

19 The Lord told Jeremiah,^[a] “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter.^[b] Take with you^[c] some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders^[d] of the priests. ²Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley that is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate.^[e] Announce there what I tell you.^[f]

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Footnotes

Jeremiah 19:1 tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. Some Hebrew mss and some of the versions have “to me.” This section, 19:1-20:6, appears to be one of the biographical sections of the book of Jeremiah where incidents in his life are reported in third person. See clearly 9:14 and 20:1-3. The mss and versions do not represent a more original text but are translational or interpretive attempts to fill in a text that had no referent. They are like the translational addition, which has been supplied on the basis of contextual indicators.
Jeremiah 19:1 tn Heb “an earthenware jar of the potter.”sn The word translated “clay” here refers to a clay that has been baked or fired in a kiln. In Jer 18 the clay was still soft and pliable, capable of being formed into different kinds of vessels. Here the clay is set, just as Israel is set in its ways. The word for jar probably refers to a water jug or decanter and is onomatopoeic, vaqbuq, referring to the gurgling sound made by pouring out the water.
Jeremiah 19:1 tc The words “Take with you” follow the reading of the Syriac version and to a certain extent the reading of the Greek version (the latter does not have “with you”). The Hebrew text does not have these words, but they are undoubtedly implicit.
Jeremiah 19:1 tn Heb “elders,” both here and before “of the people.”sn The civil and religious leaders are referred to here. They were to be witnesses of the symbolic act and of the message that Jeremiah proclaimed to the leaders of Jerusalem and to its citizens (see v. 3).
Jeremiah 19:2 sn The exact location of the Potsherd Gate is unknown since it is named nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. It is sometimes identified, on the basis of the Jerusalem Targum, with the Dung Gate mentioned in Neh 2:13; 3:13-14; and 12:31. It is probably called “Potsherd Gate” because that is where the potter threw out the broken pieces of pottery that were no longer of use to him. The Valley of Ben Hinnom has already been noted in 7:31-32 in connection with the illicit religious practices, including child sacrifice, that took place there. The Valley of Ben Hinnom (or sometimes Valley of Hinnom) runs along the west and south sides of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 19:2 tn Heb “the words that I will speak to you.”

New English Translation (NET)