Jeremiah 43:9

God commandeth the prophet to take these

stones, and to place them

in the clay, & c., for a sign of what we shall meet with expounded in the next verse: it is plain from hence that the king of Egypt, called Pharaoh, either resided, or at least had a royal palace, in Tahpanhes; Jeremiah is directed to fix these stones at the entrance into this palace. This hath made interpreters divided about the true sense of the word which is here translated a

brick-kiln. That the word so signifies is out of doubt, and is so translated, 2 Samuel 12:31. All that troubleth some is, that they fancy there should not be a brick-kiln so near the king’s palace; but possibly those learned men do not enough consider the difference of times and places. Great princes’ sons and daughters do not use in our age to keep sheep, which yet we know Jacob’s sons and Laban’s daughters did; the grandeur of princes was not so great but it might admit of as plain a thing as this. Others say the palaces of their princes were very vast, so that the brick-kiln might be at a distance from the entry into the dwelling-house, though it was at the entry of the place called by the name of the palace. Others think it might be a house used not for making, but polishing earthenware. But the greatest offensiveness of such kilns with us is from the smoke, of which they had none, drying their bricks in the sun. But it is a nicety not worth so many guesses.