Under the later kings the industry of the potter was so familiar as to furnish the prophets with figures in addressing their hearers. The cla-ssic instance of this is Jer 18, where the prophet describes how he paid a visit to the house of the potter,* and found him fashioning a work on tlie wheels. ' And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it' (v.*). The lesson drawn is, 'Cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Loud. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are j-e in mine hand, O house of Israel ' (cf. Is 29" is-* 04'*, Wis lo'"-, and the famous ar^ment of St. Paul in Ro 9^"-, a passage which will be fully dis- cussed in art. Predestination, along with which it will be well to refer to banday-Headlam's 'Romans' in Internal. Crit. Cumm. ad loc). Again, in .Ter W- a potter's earthen bottle (pzpj bnT iji", LXX /3i/c4s ir(Tr\aaiiLivoi irrpiKivos) is pur- chased by the prophet, and afterwards broken in typical allusion to the approacliing irretrievable nun of the nation (cf. Ps 2^ = Rev 2-'', Is 30").
A guild of (jotters is mentioned by the Chronicler (1 Ch 4^). In V the 'earthen vessel' (iy^n '';3) is repeatedly mentioned : Lv 6^ [Heb. "] as used for boiling the flesh of the sin-oll'ering ; 11" as defiled by contact with unclean animals ; 14°- *' one of the two birds offered on behalf of tlie cleansed leper or leprous house is to be killed ' in an earthen vessel over running water' [i.e. so as to lot the blood drop into tlie vessel and mingle with tlie water contained in it] ; 15" as defiled by an issue ; Nu 5" as used to contain the water in the jealousy ordeal. In all these instances the LXX 1ms oKcios darpd- Kivov except in Lv 14' and Nu 5", in both of which it has &.-f^i.w darpiKtvop. Ill Jer 32''' we read of a le''al document (the deed of purchase of Ilanamel's field) being kept in an earthen vessel.
The figure of the potter at work is more or less consciously present in a number of instances where the verb ns' is employed to describe tlie Divine activity in creating or fashioning men or other objects : Jahweh forms man of dust from the ground, (In 2'; beasts and birds from the ground, v.'»; Israel as a people. Is 27" 43'--' 44=' 45'''"«" 49»
• Situated probably near the Rate Ilnreith (Jer lff> RV), or gaU' of tbe potsherds ■ (?), a name perhajw derived from the quantity of potstierda thrown out there. See Uarsitu.
(even from the womb) 64' ; the individual Israelite, Is 43'; Jeremiah in the womb, Jer 1'; the eye oi man, Ps 1)4-'; the locust. Am 7'; Leviathan, Ps 104-»j the dry land, Ps 95'; the earth. Is 45'""'; the mountains. Am 4'^; the universe {h"), Jer 10" = 51". The figure appears to be lost sight of, and "IS" simply = ' lorra,' in such instances as Is 45' the forming of light, Ps 74" summer and winter. Zee 12' the si)irit of man, Ps 33" the hearts of men. is" is also used figuratively of fashioning, i.e. foreordaining, an event or situation, Is 22" 37* (=2 K 19") 46", Jer 33-, cf. Ps 139«.
The potter's clay and the vessels fashioned from it are emblems in Scripture of what is feeble or of little value. In Un 2'" the feet of the image .seen in vision by Nebuchadnezzar are described as part of iron and part of potter's clay (Aram. ^^:"^ i-fiu ; Theod. B simply iarpiKivov, A*'""»' iurpixKivov Kep- afiiou ; LXX oarpaKov KcpafUKOv), which leads to tbe interpretation, ' the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken' (RV^in 'brittle,' Aram. n-;';fi, Tlieoa. ffvvTpLfSufievovy LXX avvTerpip.txii'Op). In La 4- we have the forcible contrast : ' The precious sous of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter ' (is'v '3; nt",;? b-jn-'^zj^, LXX eh &yyta dtxTpdKipa, fpya x^^P^p KepafUw%). Again, in 2 Co 4' St. I^aul declares, ' We have this treasure [sc. the ministry entrusted to him] in earthen vessels ' {(p dtrrpaKlpoi! iXKereaip), perhaps in allusion especially to the weak bodily frame ot the apostle. ' In a {jreat house there are not only vessels of gold and ot silver, but also of wood and of earth,' 2 Ti 2^ (ir/tei>i) ScrrpaKipa) ; cf. also Is 29" 45».
Zee 11" is a diflieult passage, especially when considered in connexion with Mt 27'"-. The Mas- soretic text is thus rendered in RV: 'The Lord said unto me. Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was prised [sic] at of tlioiii. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them unto the potter in the house of the Lord.' Instead of Ti;vn-^>.s 'unto the potter,' Geseuius (Thes.) follows the Syr. in reading lyiNrr^N 'into the treasury.' This is adopted also by G. A. Smith, Wellhausen, Nowack, and others. The LXX has els rb xwfu- rfipiop, ' into the smelting furnace.' The words -iux and isT might all the more readily lie confused owing to the tendency of k to pass into ■ between two vowels. It is not improbable, however, that the Massoretes purjiosely obscured the reading isiK from a feeling that the paltrj' wage wliicli was unworthy of the prophet's acceptance could not fittingly be cast into the treasury of God. In like manner the chief priests in Mt 27" say of the thirty jiieces of silver returned by Judas, 'It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.' Accordingly, Uiey took counsel and bought with them the potter s field to bury strangers in. In this Mt characteristi- cally di.scovers a fulliliucnt of proiihecy, and it is maiiifcstly the prophecy of Zee 11" that is in view, although it is attributed to Jeremiah, and quoted in a form that agrees neither with the MT, of which we have just quoted the translation, nor with the LXX. Iho substitution of Jeremiah for Zechariah is no doubt simply due to u Inpstts memuriiE, which might occur all the more reiidily in view of the allusions to lUe jjufter in Jer IS and 19, and the narrative of the i)urclia8e of a Jicld from Hanamel in 32'"''-. The following are the leadings of the L.\X (B) of Zee 11" and of the pro- fessed quotation in Mt 27"'- (according to \V H's text)—