“Thus saith the Lord, Go and get (R.V., buy) a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate (R.V., of the gate Harsith, marg., Or, the gate of potsherds), and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee” (verses 1, 2).
It is no longer “clay,” but a perfectly formed and baked earthen vessel. “The East gate” is manifestly wrong, for the valley of the son of Hinnom was on the South of Jerusalem (Joshua 15:8) and formed the boundary between Benjamin and Judah, Jerusalem being in the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:11, 16, 28). Gesenius says that the Hebrew expression here means “the pottery gate,” through which they went to the valley of Hinnom, which is no doubt to be sought on the south-east side of the city. The Septuagint, like the R.V., simply transliterates the word, but Jerome translates it “the pottery gate.” If the word Heres, which suggests the A.V. margin, “sun gate” (from a rare word for the sun), has anything to do with the sun, it means the mid-day sun, at its southern culmination (compare the noon-day worship of Baal in Elijah’s days, 2 Kings 18). But the other word Heres (differently spelt in the Hebrew) means earthenware, and this appears to be the right idea.
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: C. C. Walker
Keywords: Potter's field, broken bottle, Gehenna, Gehinnom, Valley of Gehenna, potter, potsherd, son of Hinnom, pottery gate, valley of Hinnom, valley of the son of Hinnom, field potter, pottery, clay pot
Bible reference(s): Jeremiah 19
Source: The Ministry of the Prophets: Jeremiah (1935).
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.