Jeremiah 13:12-14 - Exposition

Here another symbol is introduced—a symbolic phrase rather than a symbolic action. The first symbol referred to the people as a whole; the second represents the fate of the individual members of the people. The words, Thus saith the lord God of Israel , are omitted in the Septuagint, and certainly the form of the following phrase seems hardly worthy of so solemn an introduction. Every bottle . It is an earthenware bottle, or pitcher, which seems from Jeremiah 13:13 to be meant (comp. Isaiah 30:14 ), though the Septuagint renders here ἀσκός . The kings that sit upon David's throne ; rather, that sit for David upon his throne ; i.e. as David's heirs and successors. The plural "kings" is to include all the kings who reigned during the final period of impending ruin. With drunkenness . The effect of the "wine-cup of [the Divine] fury" ( Jeremiah 25:15 ). Dash them one against another. This is merely the development of the figure of the pitchers; not a prediction of civil war. The pitchers, when cast down, must of course fall together into pieces.