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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flow Melchizedek king of Salem, had brought forth bread and wine, - he, being priest of GOD Most High.
Let there be fetched, I pray thee a little water, and bathe ye your feet, - and rest yourselves under the tree. And let me fetch a morsel of bread, and stay ye your heart, Afterwards, ye may pass on, For on this account, have ye passed by, over against your servant. And they said, Thus, shalt thou do as thou hast spoken. read more. So Abraham hastened towards the tent unto Sarah, - and said, Hasten thou three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make hearth-cakes. And unto the herd, ran Abraham, - and took a calf tender and good and gave unto the young man, and he hastened to make it ready. And he took butter and milk and the calf that he had made ready, and set before them, - while, he, was standing near them under the tree, they did eat.
So he went, and fetched them , and brought them in to his mother, and his mother made dainty meats, such as his father loved.
And he looked, and lo! a well, in the field and lo! there, three flocks of sheep, lying down near it, for out of that well, do they water the flocks, but, the stone, is great, on the mouth of the well: so they gather together thither all the flocks, and roll away the stone from off the mouth of the well, and water the sheep, - and put hack the stone upon the mouth of the well, to its place.
And they said, We cannot, until that all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll away the stone, from off the mouth of the well, - and then can we water the sheep.
And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mothers brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mothers brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled away the stone from off the mouth of the well, and watered the sheep of Laban his mother's brother,
They, were the potters and the inhabitants of Netaim, and Gederah, - with the king in his work, dwelt they there.
Thou shalt shepherd them with a sceptre of iron, - as a potter's vessel, shalt thou dash them in pieces.
Alas for him who contendeth with his Fashioner, - A potsherd, should contend with the potsherds of the ground! Shall it be said by the clay, unto him that is fashioning it, What wouldst thou make? Or, thy work say, of thee, He hath no hands?
But, now, O Yahweh, our father, thou art, - We are the clay, and, thou, art our potter, Yea the work of thy hand, are we all:
So I went down, to the house of the potter, - and there he was! making a piece of work on the wheels,
Thus said Yahweh, Go and buy a potters earthen bottle, - and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;
The precious sons of Zion, they who were weighed against pure gold, How are they accounted as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
Then said Yahweh unto me, Cast it into the treasury, the magnificent price at which I had been valued by them! So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them, in the house of Yahweh, into the treasury.
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay - out of the same lump, to make some, indeed, into a vessel for honour, and some for dishonour?
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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So then Pharaoh gave command on that day, unto the taskmasters over the people and unto their overseers - saying: Ye shall no more give straw unto the people, for making the bricks as heretofore: Let them, go, themselves, so shall they gather for themselves straw: read more. Nevertheless, the fixed number of bricks, which they have been making heretofore, shall ye lay upon them, ye shall not diminish therefrom, - for idle, they are, on this account, it is that they are making an outcry, saying, We must go our way, we must sacrifice to our God. The service must be made heavy on the men that they may labour on it, - and let them not pay regard to words of falsehood. Then went forth the taskmasters of the people and their overseers, and spake unto the people, - saying, - Thus, saith Pharaoh, I am not going to give you straw, Ye yourselves go fetch you straw, of any ye can find, - yet hath there not been diminished from your service a single thing. So the people dispersed themselves throughout all the land of Egypt, - to gather stubble for straw:
and would strike it into the boiler, or into the trough, or into the kettle, or into the pot, all that the fork would bring up, the priest took for himself. Thus and thus, used they to do unto all Israel, who came thither, in Shiloh.
Thou shalt shepherd them with a sceptre of iron, - as a potter's vessel, shalt thou dash them in pieces.
I took away, from the burden, his shoulder, his hands, from the clay, were set free.
So shall he become a hallowed asylum, - But a stone to strike against, and a rock to stumble over unto both houses of Israel A trap and a snare to the dweller in Jerusalem;
Therefore, Thus, saith My Lord, Yahweh, Behold me! founding in Zion a stone, A stone of testing, The costly corner of a well-laid foundation, he that trusteth, shall not make haste!
Your perverseness! As if like clay, the potter could he reckoned; For shall, the thing made say of him that made it, he made me not? Or hath the thing fashioned ever said of him that fashioned it, He hath no understanding.
Yea he will break it - as the breaking of the pitcher of a potter, crushed, he will not spare; So that there shall not be found when it is smashed, A sherd wherewith to snatch fire from a hearth, Or to skim off water out of a cistern.
A voice of one crying! - In the desert, prepare ye the way of Yahweh, - Make smooth in the waste plain a highway for our God:
I have roused up one from the North, and he hath come, From the rising of the sun, calleth he on my Name, - And he hath come, on deputies, as though they were mortar, And as a potter treadeth clay.
Alas for him who contendeth with his Fashioner, - A potsherd, should contend with the potsherds of the ground! Shall it be said by the clay, unto him that is fashioning it, What wouldst thou make? Or, thy work say, of thee, He hath no hands?
Lo! Yahweh, hath sent a message unto the end of the earth: Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Lo! thy Salvation, is coming, - Lo! his reward, is with him, And, his recompense, before him:
So I went down, to the house of the potter, - and there he was! making a piece of work on the wheels,
So I went down, to the house of the potter, - and there he was! making a piece of work on the wheels, Then was marred, the vessel that he was making, while yet it was clay in the hand of the potter, - so he turned and made of it another vessel, as seemed right in the eyes of the potter to make it. read more. Then came the word of Yahweh unto me, saying: Like this potter, can I not deal with you O house of Israel? Demandeth Yahweh: Lo! as clay in the hand of the potter, So, are, ye, in my hand O house of Israel.
and shalt say unto them - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts - Thus and thus, will I break this people, and this city, As one breaketh the vessel of a potter, which cannot be made whole any more, - And in Topheth, shall they bury, for want of place to bury.
The precious sons of Zion, they who were weighed against pure gold, How are they accounted as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
Thou therefore O son of man Take thee a tablet, and lay it before thee, - and pourtray thereon a city, even Jerusalem.
Exult greatly, O daughter of Zion, Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem, Lo! thy king, cometh unto thee, vindicated and victorious, is he, - lowly, and riding upon an ass, yea, upon a colt, a young ass.
Then said I unto them, If it be good in your eyes, give me my wage, and, if not, forbear. So they weighed out my wage, thirty pieces of silver. Then said Yahweh unto me, Cast it into the treasury, the magnificent price at which I had been valued by them! So I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them, in the house of Yahweh, into the treasury.
Behold me! sending my messenger, who will prepare a way before me, - and, suddenly, shall come to his temple The Lord whom ye are seeking, even the messenger of the covenant in whom ye are delighting, Lo! he cometh! saith Yahweh of hosts.
But, this, hath come to pass, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken through the prophet, saying: Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Lo! thy King, is coming unto thee, meek and mounted upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of a toiling ass.
Then, was fulfilled, that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, as the value of him whom they had valued, whom they had valued, of Israel's sons, -
According as it is written in Isaiah the prophet - Lo! I send my messenger before thy face, Who shall prepare thy way, - A voice of one crying aloud - In the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight, be making his paths.
Even as it is written - Lo! I lay in Zion, a stone to strike against and a rock to stumble over, and, he that resteth faith thereupon, shall not be put to shame.
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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They, were the potters and the inhabitants of Netaim, and Gederah, - with the king in his work, dwelt they there.
I took away, from the burden, his shoulder, his hands, from the clay, were set free.
Depart ye from the way, Turn aside from the path, - Desist from setting before us the Holy One of Israel.
I have roused up one from the North, and he hath come, From the rising of the sun, calleth he on my Name, - And he hath come, on deputies, as though they were mortar, And as a potter treadeth clay.
Alas for him who contendeth with his Fashioner, - A potsherd, should contend with the potsherds of the ground! Shall it be said by the clay, unto him that is fashioning it, What wouldst thou make? Or, thy work say, of thee, He hath no hands?