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 Melchisedek, 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 brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will bring a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that you shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said. read more. And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran to the herd, and brought a calf tender and good, and gave it to a young man; and he hasted 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 ate.
And he went, and took, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savory meat, 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 thither 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 are collected, 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 among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Woe to him that contendeth with his Maker! Let the potsherd contend with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients 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 to me, Cast it to the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel to honor, and another to 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 task-masters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves. read more. And the number of the bricks which they made heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof; for they are idle: therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein: and let them not regard vain words. And the task-masters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not aught 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 struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites that came thither.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
And he will be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a piece to take fire from the hearth, or to take water out of the pit.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye 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 treadeth clay.
Woe to him that contendeth with his Maker! Let the potsherd contend with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed to the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought 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 it 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? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.
Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
And shalt say to them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, 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!
Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it the city, even Jerusalem;
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh to thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
And I said to them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, Cast it to the potter: a goodly price that I was prized 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 ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he will come, saith the LORD of hosts.
All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh to thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
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 thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee; The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone, and rock of offense: and whoever believeth 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 among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.
I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
Withdraw from the way, turn aside from 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 treadeth clay.
Woe to him that contendeth with his Maker! Let the potsherd contend with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith 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.