Jeremiah 43:9

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

“Take some large stones and bury them in the mortar of the clay pavement at the entrance of Pharaoh’s residence here in Tahpanhes. Do it while the people of Judah present there are watching.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

קַ֣ח בְּיָדְךָ֞ אֲבָנִ֣ים גְּדֹל֗וֹת וּטְמַנְתָּ֤ם בַּמֶּ֙לֶט֙ בַּמַּלְבֵּ֔ן אֲשֶׁ֛ר בְּפֶ֥תַח בֵּית־פַּרְעֹ֖ה בְּתַחְפַּנְחֵ֑ס לְעֵינֵ֖י אֲנָשִׁ֥ים יְהוּדִֽים׃

Transliteration

Take qaḥ in bə-yādəkā ʾăbānîm gədōlôt and û-ṭəmantām in the ba-meleṭ in the ba-malbēn which ʾăšer in bə-petaḥ bêt-parʿōh in bə-Taḥpanḥēs to lə-ʿênê ʾănāšîm yəhûdîm.

Grammar Details

• *qaḥ*: verb, imperative, masculine singular - take
• *bə-yādəkā*: preposition + noun, feminine singular + 2nd masculine singular suffix - in your hand
• *ʾăbānîm*: noun, feminine plural - stones
• *gədōlôt*: adjective, feminine plural - large/great
• *û-ṭəmantām*: conjunction + verb, perfect, 2nd masculine singular + 3rd masculine plural suffix - and you shall hide them
• *ba-meleṭ*: preposition + definite article + noun, masculine singular - in the mortar/clay
• *ba-malbēn*: preposition + definite article + noun, masculine singular - in the brick pavement/kiln
• *ʾăšer*: relative pronoun - which/that
• *bə-petaḥ*: preposition + noun, masculine singular construct - at the entrance of
• *bêt*: noun, masculine singular construct - house of
• *parʿōh*: proper noun - Pharaoh
• *bə-Taḥpanḥēs*: preposition + proper noun - in Tahpanhes
• *lə-ʿênê*: preposition + noun, feminine dual construct - before the eyes of
• *ʾănāšîm*: noun, masculine plural - men
• *yəhûdîm*: adjective, masculine plural - Jewish/Judean

Word Meanings

• *yād*: hand/power/authority
• *ʾăbānîm*: stones/rocks
• *gədōlôt*: large/great/big
• *ṭəmantām*: hide them/bury them/conceal them
• *meleṭ*: mortar/clay/cement
• *malbēn*: brick pavement/brick-kiln/brickwork
• *petaḥ*: entrance/doorway/opening
• *ʿênê*: eyes/sight/presence

Referenced Verses

• Jer 18:2-9 : 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working at his wheel. 4 Now and then there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit. 5 Then the LORD’s message came to me, 6 “I, the LORD, say:‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’ 7 There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. 8 But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. 9 And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. 10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it. 11 So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The LORD says,‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ 12 But they just keep saying,‘We do not care what you say! We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’”
• Jer 19:1-9 : 1 An Object Lesson from a Broken Clay Jar The LORD told Jeremiah,“Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take with you some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests. 2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Announce there what I tell you. 3 Say,‘Listen to the LORD’s message, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, has said,“Look here. I am about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring! 4 I will do so because these people have rejected me and have defiled this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. 5 They have built places here for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind! 6 So I, the LORD, say:“The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley the Valley of Slaughter! 7 In this place I will thwart the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword at the hands of their enemies. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat. 8 I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. 9 I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” 10 The LORD continued,“Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you. 11 Tell them the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says,‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ 12 I, the LORD, say:‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth. 13 The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’” 14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the LORD had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the LORD’s temple and stood in its courtyard and called out to all the people. 15 “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says,‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused to pay any attention to what I have said!’”
• Jer 51:63-64 : 63 When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. 64 Then say,‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’”The prophecies of Jeremiah end here.
• Ezek 4:1-5:17 : 1 Ominous Object Lessons“And you, son of man, take a brick and set it in front of you. Inscribe a city on it– Jerusalem. 2 Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp against it! Post soldiers outside it and station battering rams around it. 3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign for the house of Israel. 4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days for you– 390 days. So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days– I have assigned one day for each year. 7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 8 Look here, I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege. 9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, put them in a single container, and make food from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side– 390 days– you will eat it. 10 The food you eat will be eight ounces a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed times. 11 And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half; you must drink it at fixed times. 12 And you must eat the food like you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” 13 And the LORD said,“This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations where I will banish them.” 14 And I said,“Ah, Sovereign LORD, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat has never entered my mouth.” 15 So he said to me,“All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.” 16 Then he said to me,“Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply in Jerusalem. They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity. 1 “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off. 2 Burn a third of it in the fire inside the city when the days of your siege are completed. Take a third and slash it with a sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will unleash a sword behind them. 3 But take a few strands of hair from those and tie them in the ends of your garment. 4 Again, take more of them and throw them into the fire, and burn them up. From there a fire will spread to all the house of Israel. 5 “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her. 6 Then she defied my regulations and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries around her. Indeed, they have rejected my regulations, and they do not follow my statutes. 7 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you are more arrogant than the nations around you, you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even carried out the regulations of the nations around you! 8 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I– even I– am against you, and I will execute judgment among you while the nations watch. 9 I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again because of all your abominable practices. 10 Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors to the winds. 11 “Therefore, as surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare you. 12 A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, and a third I will scatter to the winds. I will unleash a sword behind them. 13 Then my anger will be fully vented; I will exhaust my rage on them, and I will be appeased. Then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken in my jealousy when I have fully vented my rage against them. 14 “I will make you desolate and an object of scorn among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by. 15 You will be an object of scorn and taunting, a prime example of destruction among the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken! 16 I will shoot against them deadly, destructive arrows of famine, which I will shoot to destroy you. I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken!”
• Ezek 12:3-9 : 3 “Therefore, son of man, pack up your belongings as if for exile. During the day, while they are watching, pretend to go into exile. Go from where you live to another place. Perhaps they will understand, although they are a rebellious house. 4 Bring out your belongings packed for exile during the day while they are watching. And go out at evening, while they are watching, as if for exile. 5 While they are watching, dig a hole in the wall and carry your belongings out through it. 6 While they are watching, raise your baggage onto your shoulder and carry it out in the dark. You must cover your face so that you cannot see the ground because I have made you an object lesson to the house of Israel.” 7 So I did just as I was commanded. I carried out my belongings packed for exile during the day, and at evening I dug myself a hole through the wall with my hands. I went out in the darkness, carrying my baggage on my shoulder while they watched. 8 The LORD’s message came to me in the morning: 9 “Son of man, has not the house of Israel, that rebellious house, said to you,‘What are you doing?’ 10 Say to them,‘This is what the Sovereign LORD has said: The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel within it.’ 11 Say,‘I am an object lesson for you. Just as I have done, it will be done to them; they will go into exile and captivity.’ 12 “The prince who is among them will raise his belongings onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He will dig a hole in the wall to leave through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes. 13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans(but he will not see it), and there he will die. 14 All his retinue– his attendants and his troops– I will scatter to every wind; I will unleash a sword behind them. 15 “Then they will know that I am the LORD when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries. 16 But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
• Hos 12:10 : 10 I spoke to the prophets; I myself revealed many visions; I spoke in parables through the prophets.”
• Nah 3:14 : 14 Draw yourselves water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!
• Acts 21:11 : 11 He came to us, took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said,“The Holy Spirit says this:‘This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”
• Rev 18:21 : 21 Then one powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said,“With this kind of sudden violent force Babylon the great city will be thrown down and it will never be found again!
• Exod 1:14 : 14 They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.
• 2 Sam 12:31 : 31 He removed the people who were in it and made them labor with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, putting them to work at the brick kiln. This was his policy with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.
• 1 Kgs 11:29-31 : 29 At that time, when Jeroboam had left Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road; the two of them were alone in the open country. Ahijah was wearing a brand new robe, 30 and he grabbed the robe and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he told Jeroboam,“Take ten pieces, for this is what the LORD God of Israel has said:‘Look, I am about to tear the kingdom from Solomon’s hand and I will give ten tribes to you.
• Isa 20:1-4 : 1 The LORD revealed the following message during the year in which King Sargon of Assyria sent his commanding general to Ashdod, and he fought against it and captured it. 2 At that time the LORD announced through Isaiah son of Amoz:“Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments and barefoot. 3 Later the LORD explained,“In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush, 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, both young and old. They will be in undergarments and barefoot, with the buttocks exposed; the Egyptians will be publicly humiliated.
• Jer 13:1-9 : 1 An Object Lesson from Ruined Linen Shorts The LORD said to me,“Go and buy some linen shorts and put them on. Do not put them in water.” 2 So I bought the shorts in keeping with the LORD’s instructions and put them on. 3 Then the LORD’s message came to me again, 4 “Take the shorts that you bought and are wearing and go at once to Perath. Bury the shorts there in a crack in the rocks.” 5 So I went and buried them at Perath as the LORD had ordered me to do. 6 Many days later the LORD said to me,“Go at once to Perath and get the shorts I ordered you to bury there.” 7 So I went to Perath and dug up the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found that they were ruined; they were good for nothing. 8 Then the LORD’s message came to me, 9 “I, the LORD, say:‘This shows how I will ruin the highly exalted position in which Judah and Jerusalem take pride. 10 These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing. 11 For,’ I say,‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah tightly to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. But they would not obey me.