Reference: Pottery
Easton
the art of, was early practised among all nations. Various materials seem to have been employed by the potter. Earthenware is mentioned in connection with the history of Melchizedek (Ge 14:18), of Abraham (Ge 18:4-8), of Rebekah (Ge 27:14), of Rachel (Ge 29:2-3,8,10). The potter's wheel is mentioned by Jeremiah (Jer 18:3). See also 1Ch 4:23; Ps 2:9; Isa 45:9; 64:8; Jer 19:1; La 4:2; Zec 11:13; Ro 9:21.
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Melchizedek king of Salem [later called Jerusalem] brought out bread and wine [for their nourishment]; he was the priest of God Most High,
Let a little water be brought, and you may wash your feet and recline and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel (mouthful) of bread to refresh and sustain your hearts before you go on further -- "for that is why you have come to your servant. And they replied, Do as you have said. read more. So Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah and said, Quickly get ready three measures of fine meal, knead it, and bake cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and brought a calf tender and good and gave it to the young man [to butcher]; then he [Abraham] hastened to prepare it. And he took curds and milk and the calf which he had made ready, and set it before [the men]; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
So [Jacob] went, got [the kids], and brought them to his mother; and his mother prepared appetizing meat with a delightful odor, such as his father loved.
As he looked, he saw a well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was a big one, And when all the flocks were gathered there, [the shepherds] would roll the stone from the well's mouth, water the sheep, and replace the stone on the well's mouth.
But they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together; then [the shepherds] roll the stone from the well's mouth and we water the sheep.
When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his uncle, Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of his uncle Laban.
These were the potters and those who dwelt among plantations and hedges at Netaim and Gederah; there they dwelt with the king for his work.
You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like potters' ware.
Woe to him who strives with his Maker! -- "a worthless piece of broken pottery among other pieces equally worthless [and yet presuming to strive with his Maker]! Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you think you are making? or, Your work has no handles?
Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter, and we all are the work of Your hand.
Thus says the Lord: Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take some of the old people and some of the elderly priests
The noble and precious sons of Zion, [once] worth their weight in fine gold -- "how they are esteemed [merely] as earthen pots or pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
And the Lord said to me, Cast it to the potter [as if He said, To the dogs!] -- "the munificently [miserable] sum at which I [and My shepherd] am priced by them! And I [Zechariah] took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same mass (lump) one vessel for beauty and distinction and honorable use, and another for menial or ignoble and dishonorable use?
Fausets
Early known in Egypt. Israel in bondservice there wrought at it (Ps 81:6, so the Hebrew in 1Sa 2:14); but translated for "pots" the harden baskets for carrying clay, bricks, etc., such as are depicted in the sepulchral vaults at Thebes (Ex 5:6-12; 2Ch 16:6). The potter trod the clay into a paste (Isa 41:25), then put it on a wheel, by which he sat and shaped it. The wheel or horizontal lathe was a wooden disc, placed on another larger one, and turned by hand or worked by a treadle (Jer 18:3); on the upper he molded the clay into shape (Isa 45:9); the vessel was then smoothed, glazed, and burnt. Tiles with painting and writing on them were common (Eze 4:1). There was a royal establishment of potters at Jerusalem under the sons of Shelab (1Ch 4:25), carrying on the trade for the king's revenue. The pottery found in Palestine is divisible into Phoenician, Graeco-Phoenician, Roman, Christian, and Arabic; on handles of jars occur inscriptions: "to king Zepha .... king Shat" and Melek (Palestine Exploration, Our Work in Palestine).
Emblem of man's brittle frailty, and of God's potter-like power to shape our ends as He pleases (Ps 2:9; Isa 29:16; 30:14; Jer 19:11; La 4:2). As Isa 40:3 and Mal 3:1 are thrown together in Mr 1:2-3; also Isa 62:11 and Zec 9:9 in Mt 21:4-5; and Isa 8:14; 28:16 in Ro 9:33; so Jer 18:3-6,19, and Zec 11:12-13 in Mt 27:9. Matthew presumes his reader's full knowledge of Scripture, and merges the two human sacred writers, Jeremiah and Zechariah, in the one voice of the Holy Spirit speaking by them. In Matthew and Zechariah alike, the Lord's representative, Israel's Shepherd, has a paltry price set upon Him by the people; the transaction is done deliberately by men connected with the house of Jehovah; the money is given to the potter, marking the perpetrators' baseness, guilt, and doom, and the hand of the Lord overrules it all, the Jewish rulers while following their own aims unconsciously fulfilling Jehovah's "appointment."
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The very same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, You shall no more give the people straw to make brick; let them go and gather straw for themselves. read more. But the number of the bricks which they made before you shall still require of them; you shall not diminish it in the least. For they are idle; that is why they cry, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let heavier work be laid upon the men that they may labor at it and pay no attention to lying words. The taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they said to the people, Thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go, get straw where you can find it; but your work shall not be diminished in the least. So the people were scattered through all the land of Egypt to gather the short stubble instead of straw.
And he thrust it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh with all the Israelites who came there.
You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like potters' ware.
I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from the basket.
And He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred and indestructible asylum to those who reverently fear and trust in Him]; but He shall be a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am laying in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tested Stone, a precious Cornerstone of sure foundation; he who believes (trusts in, relies on, and adheres to that Stone) will not be ashamed or give way or hasten away [in sudden panic].
[Oh, your perversity!] You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be considered of no more account than the clay? Shall the thing that is made say of its maker, He did not make me; or the thing that is formed say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?
And he shall break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing so that there cannot be found among its pieces one large enough to carry coals of fire from the hearth or to dip water out of the cistern.
A voice of one who cries: Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord [clear away the obstacles]; make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God!
I have raised up and impelled to action one from the north [Cyrus], and he comes; from the rising of the sun he calls upon My name [recognizing that his victories have been granted to him by Me]. And he shall tread upon rulers and deputies as upon mortar and as the potter treads clay. [He comes with the suddenness of a comet, but none of the idol oracles of the nations has anticipated it.]
Woe to him who strives with his Maker! -- "a worthless piece of broken pottery among other pieces equally worthless [and yet presuming to strive with his Maker]! Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you think you are making? or, Your work has no handles?
Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the Daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes [in the person of the Lord]; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work and recompense before Him.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was working at the wheel. And the vessel that he was making from clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he made it over, reworking it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it. read more. Then the word of the Lord came to me: O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
Give heed to me, Lord; listen to [what] my adversaries [are plotting to do to me -- "and intercede].
And say to them, Thus said the Lord of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it cannot be mended. Men will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place for burial and until there is no more room to bury.
The noble and precious sons of Zion, [once] worth their weight in fine gold -- "how they are esteemed [merely] as earthen pots or pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
And you, son of man, take a tile and lay it before you, and make upon it a drawing of a city, even Jerusalem.
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you; He is [uncompromisingly] just and having salvation [triumphant and victorious], patient, meek, lowly, and riding on a donkey, upon a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And I said to them, If it seems just and right to you, give me my wages; but if not, withhold them. So they weighed out for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, Cast it to the potter [as if He said, To the dogs!] -- "the munificently [miserable] sum at which I [and My shepherd] am priced by them! And I [Zechariah] took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord [the Messiah], Whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; the Messenger or Angel of the covenant, Whom you desire, behold, He shall come, says the Lord of hosts.
This happened that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Say to the Daughter of Zion [inhabitants of Jerusalem], Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey [a beast of burden].
Then were fulfilled the words spoken by Jeremiah the prophet when he said, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him on Whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel,
Just as it is written in the prophet Isaiah: Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will make ready Your way -- " A voice of one crying in the wilderness [shouting in the desert], Prepare the way of the Lord, make His beaten tracks straight (level and passable)!
As it is written, Behold I am laying in Zion a Stone that will make men stumble, a Rock that will make them fall; but he who believes in Him [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] shall not be put to shame nor be disappointed in his expectations.
Smith
Pottery.
The art of pottery is one of the most common and most ancient of all manufactures. It is abundantly evident, both that the Hebrews used earthenware vessels in the wilderness and that the potter's trade was afterward carried on in Palestine. They had themselves been concerned in the potter's trade in Egypt,
and the wall-paintings minutely illustrate the Egyptian process. The clay, when dug, was trodden by men's feet so as to form a paste,
Wisd. 15:7; then placed by the potter on the wheel beside which he sat, and shaped by him with his hands. How early the wheel came into use in Palestine is not known, but it seems likely that it was adopted from Egypt.
The vessel was then smoothed and coated with a glaze, and finally burnt in a furnace. There was at Jerusalem a royal establishment of potters,
from whose employment, and from the fragments cast away in the process, the Potter's Field perhaps received its name.
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These were the potters and those who dwelt among plantations and hedges at Netaim and Gederah; there they dwelt with the king for his work.
I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from the basket.
Get out of the true way, turn aside out of the path, cease holding up before us the Holy One of Israel.
I have raised up and impelled to action one from the north [Cyrus], and he comes; from the rising of the sun he calls upon My name [recognizing that his victories have been granted to him by Me]. And he shall tread upon rulers and deputies as upon mortar and as the potter treads clay. [He comes with the suddenness of a comet, but none of the idol oracles of the nations has anticipated it.]
Woe to him who strives with his Maker! -- "a worthless piece of broken pottery among other pieces equally worthless [and yet presuming to strive with his Maker]! Shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What do you think you are making? or, Your work has no handles?