“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
Jeremiah summoned witnesses, that the confirmation of the prophecy might be more fully attested to the people. With regard to the history of this transaction we may add, that he was first sent to the house of the potter, from whence he procured the bottle; he then went to Tophet, and there spoke against their impious and corrupt superstitions; and at last, to seal the...
The message of wrath delivered in the foregoing verses is here enforced, that it might gain credit, two ways: - I. By a visible sign. The prophet was to take along with him an earthen bottle (Jer 19:1), and, when he had delivered his message, he was to break the bottle to pieces (Jer 19:10), and the same that were auditors of the sermon must be spectators of the sign.
Commenting on Jeremiah 19:10-15
Then shall thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee. The earthen bottle he was bid to get of the potter, Jer 19:1; this he is ordered to break in pieces before the eyes of the ancients of and of the priests that went with him out Jerusalem to Tophet, as an emblem of the easy, sure, and utter...