Clay

A potter at his wheel is one of the Bible’s best-loved pictures of God. “We are the clay, and thou our potter,” says Isaiah, and Jeremiah watches a potter reshape a spoiled vessel and hears the Lord say, “as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand.” Clay also stands for weakness, as in Job’s “houses of clay,” and for rescue, when the psalmist is lifted “out of the miry clay.” In Daniel 2 a statue’s feet are part iron, part clay, a sign of a kingdom that cannot hold. Isaiah 64 and Jeremiah 18 are good places to start.

16 verses

Job

Job 4:19

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

Psalms

Psalms 40:2

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

Isaiah

Isaiah 29:16

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?

Isaiah 41:25

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 morter, and as the potter treadeth clay.

Isaiah 45:9

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive 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?

Isaiah 64:8

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.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 18:6

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 mine hand, O house of Israel.

Daniel

Daniel 2:33

His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

Daniel 2:34

Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

Daniel 2:35

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 2:36

This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

Daniel 2:37

Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

Daniel 2:38

And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

Daniel 2:39

And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

Daniel 2:40

And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Daniel 2:41

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

This word is used of sediment found in pits or in streets (Isa. 57:20; Jer. 38:60), of dust mixed with spittle (John 9:6), and of potter’s clay (Isa. 41:25; Nah. 3:14; Jer. 18:1-6; Rom. 9:21). Clay was used for sealing (Job 38:14; Jer. 32:14). Our Lord’s tomb may have been thus sealed (Matt. 27:66). The practice of sealing doors with clay is still common in the East. Clay was also in primitive times used for mortar (Gen. 11:3). The “clay ground” in which the large vessels of the temple were cast (1 Kings 7:46; 2 Chr. 4:17) was a compact loam fitted for the purpose. The expression literally rendered is, “in the thickness of the ground,”, meaning, “in stiff ground” or in clay.

Read the full entry

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

As the sediment of water remaining in pits or in streets, the word is used frequently in the Old Testament. (Psalms 18:42; Isaiah 57:20; Jeremiah 38:6) and in the New Testament, (John 9:6) a mixture of sand or dust with spittle. It is also found in the sense of potter’s clay. (Isaiah 41:25) The great seat of the pottery of the present day in Palestine is Gaza, where are made the vessels in dark-blue clay so frequently met with. Another use of clay was for sealing. (Job 38:14) Our Lord’s tomb may have been thus sealed, (Matthew 27:66) as also the earthen vessel containing the evidences of Jeremiah’s purchase. (Jeremiah 32:14) The seal used for public documents was rolled on the moist clay, and the tablet was then placed in the fire and baked.