Jeremiah 19:10

19:10 The Lord continued, ¹  “Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you.

Jeremiah 19:1

An Object Lesson from a Broken Clay Jar

19:1 The Lord told Jeremiah, ²  “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. ³  Take with you ⁴  some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders ⁵  of the priests.

[19:10]  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.

[19:1]  ² 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 which had no referent. They are like the translational addition that has been supplied on the basis of contextual indicators.

[19:1]  ³ tn Heb “an earthenware jar of the potter.”

[19:1]  ⁴ 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.

[19:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “elders” both here and before “of the people.”