Jeremiah 19:10-12

19:10 The Lord continued, ¹  “Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you. 19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ²  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ³  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ⁴  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ⁵  19:12 I, the Lord, say: ⁶  ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth.

¹ tn The words “And the Lord continued” are not in the text. However, they are necessary to take us clearly back to the flow of the narrative begun in vv. 1-2 and interrupted by the long speech in vv. 3-9.

² tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

³ tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

⁴ tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

⁵ sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

⁶ tn This phrase (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) has been handled this way on several occasions when it occurs within first person addresses where the Lord is the speaker. See, e.g., 16:16; 17:24; 18:6.