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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And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort your hearts; after that you shall pass on: for therefore are you come to your servant. And they said, So do, as you have said. read more. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hastened to dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
And he went, and took, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savory food, such as his father loved.
And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And there were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in its place.
And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then we water the sheep.
And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
These were the potters, and those that dwelt 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 a potter's vessel.
Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What do you make? or of your work, He has no hands?
But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he worked a work on the wheels.
Thus says the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen flask, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;
The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a princely price that I was valued at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
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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And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, You shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as before: let them go and gather straw for themselves. read more. And the number of the bricks, which they did make before, you shall lay upon them; you shall not diminish any of them: for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor in it; and let them not give regard to vain words. And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, Thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go, get you straw where you can find it: yet not any of your work shall be diminished. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather 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, unto all the Israelites that came there.
You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were freed from the basket.
And he shall be as a sanctuary; but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: he that believes shall not be in haste.
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the thing made say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing formed say of him that formed it, He had no understanding?
And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found among the fragments of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to dip water out of the cistern.
The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What do you make? or of your work, He has no hands?
Behold, the LORD has proclaimed unto the ends of the earth, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he worked a work on the wheels.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he worked a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. read more. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? 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, O LORD, and listen to the voice of them that contend with me.
And shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Topheth, till there be no place to bury.
The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
You also, son of man, take you a clay tablet, and lay it before you, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.
And I said unto them, If you think it good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a princely price that I was valued at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, says the LORD of hosts.
All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King comes unto you, meek, and sitting upon a donkey, and a colt the foal of a donkey.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;
As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his paths straight .
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense: and whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.
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 that dwelt 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 way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treads clay.
Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What do you make? or of your work, He has no hands?
And I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.