A FLASK, narrow-necked jug — and the Hebrew word is almost certainly onomatopoeic, imitating the buq-buq gurgle of liquid poured from just such a vessel (compare English 'glug-glug'). Jeremiah is sent to buy one made by a potter (19:1) — not the soft, reshapable clay of the previous chapter's wheel, but a finished, FIRED piece — and ordered to smash it before witnesses at the valley's edge, 'that it cannot be mended again' (19:11). ⚠️ The same three consonants, b-q-q, return four verses after the purchase in a very different verb: 'I will EMPTY OUT (baqoti) the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem' (19:7) — the sign's own name becomes the sentence. → first discussed at Jer 19:1