Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 18:2
Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
House – i. e., workshop. The clay-field where the potters exercised their craft lay to the south of Jerusalem just beyond the valley of Hinnom. Compare Zec 11:13; Mat 27:10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. Go down to the potter’s house] By this similitude God shows the absolute state of dependence on himself in which he has placed mankind. They are as clay in the hands of the potter; and in reference to every thing here below, he can shape their destinies as he pleases. Again; though while under the providential care of God they may go morally astray, and pervert themselves, yet they can be reclaimed by the almighty and all-wise Operator, and become such vessels as seemeth good for him to make. In considering this parable we must take heed that in running parallels we do not destroy the free agency of man, nor disgrace the goodness and supremacy of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is likely there was but one
potter near the place, or at least that there was one more noted and eminent than the rest, to whose house the Lord here sendeth the prophet, intending there further to tell him his mind what he would have him publish as his mind and will to this people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. go downnamely, from thehigh ground on which the temple stood, near which Jeremiah exercisedhis prophetic office, to the low ground, where some well-known (thisis the force of “the”) potter had his workshop.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Arise, and go down to the potter’s house,…. Which, no doubt, was well known to the prophet; but where it was is not certain. Some think Jeremiah was in the temple, and this house was beneath it, and therefore he is bid to go down to it; but of this there is no certainty, nor even probability: it is most likely that this house was without the city, perhaps near the potter’s field, Mt 27:10; and which lying low, he is ordered to go down to it:
and there I will cause thee to hear my words; there the Lord would tell him what he had further to say to him, and what he should say to the people; and where by lively representations, by sensible objects before him, he would cause him to understand more clearly what he said and designed to do: as God sometimes represented things to the minds of the prophets in dreams and visions, setting before them mental objects, and raising in their minds ideas of things; so sometimes he represented things to them by real visible objects, and, by similes taken from thence, conveyed unto them a clear and distinct knowledge of his mind and will, and they to the people; which was the case here.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The emblem and its interpretation. – Jer 18:2 . “Arise and go down into the potter’s house; there will I cause thee to hear my words. Jer 18:3 . And I went down into the potter’s house; and, behold, he wrought on the wheels. Jer 18:4 . And the vessel was marred, that he wrought in clay, in the hand of the potter; then he made again another vessel of it, as seemed good to the potter to make. Jer 18:5 . Then came the word of Jahveh to me, saying: Jer 18:6 . Cannot I do with you as this potter, house of Israel? saith Jahveh. Behold, as the clay in the hand of the potter, so are ye in mine hand, house of Israel. Jer 18:7 . Now I speak concerning a people and kingdom, to root it out and pluck up and destroy it. Jer 18:8 . But if that people turns from its wickedness, against which I spake, the it repents me of the evil which I thought to do it. Jer 18:9 . And now I speak concerning a people and a kingdom, to build and to plant it. Jer 18:10. If it do that which is evil in mine eyes, so that it hearkens not unto my voice, then it repents me of the good which I said I would do unto it.”
By God’s command Jeremiah is to go and see the potter’s treatment of the clay, and to receive thereafter God’s interpretation of the same. Here he has set before his eyes that which suggests a comparison of man to the clay and of God to the potter, a comparison that frequently occurred to the Hebrews, and which had been made to appear in the first formation of man (cf. Job 10:9; Job 33:6; Isa 29:16; Isa 45:9; Isa 64:7). This is done that he may forcibly represent to the people, by means of the emblem, the power of the Lord to do according to His will with all nations, and so with Israel too. From the “go down,” we gather that the potteries of Jerusalem lay in a valley near the city. are the round frames by means of which the potter moulded his vessels. This sig. of the word is well approved here; but in Exo 1:16, where too it is found, the meaning is doubtful, and it is a question whether the derivation is from or from , wheel. The perfecta consec. and designate, taken in connection with the participle , actions that were possibly repeated: “and if the vessel was spoilt, he made it over again;” cf. Ew. 342, b. , working in clay, of the material in which men work in order to make something of it; cf. Exo 31:4.
(Note: Instead of several codd. and editt. have , as in Jer 18:6, to which Ew. and Hitz. both take objection, so that they delete (Ew.) or (Hitz.) as being glosses, since the words are not in the lxx. The attempts of Umbr. and Nag. to obtain a sense for are truly of such a kind as only to strengthen the suspicion of spuriousness. Umbr., who is followed by Graf, expounds: “as the clay in the hand of the potter does;” whereto Hitz. justly replies: “but is then the (failure) solely its own doing?” Ng. will have to be the verit.: the vessel was marred, as clay in the hand of the potter, in which case the still interrupts. But the failure of the attempts to make a good sense of does in no respect justify the uncritical procedure of Ew. and Hitz. in deleting the word without considering that the reading is by no means established, since not only do the most important and correct editions and a great number of codd. read , but Aquila, Theodot., the Chald, and Syr. give this reading; Norzi and Houbig. call it lectio accuratiorum codicum , and the Masora on Jer 18:6 and Job 10:9 confirms it. Cf. de Rossi variae lectt. ad h. l . and the critical remarks in the Biblia Hal . by J. H. Michaelis, according to which plainly made its way into the present verse from Jer 18:6 by the error of a copyist; and it can only be from his prejudice in favour of the lxx that Hitz. pronounces original, as being “the reading traditionally in use.”)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(2) The potters house.The place was probably identical with the potters field of Zec. 11:13, the well-known spot where the workers in that art carried on their business. The traditional Aceldama, the potters field of Mat. 27:7, is on the southern face of the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem. The soil is still a kind of clay suitable and employed for the same purpose (Ritter, Palestine, iv. 165, Eng. Trans.). The purchase of the field to bury strangers in (Mat. 27:7) implies, however, that it was looked upon as a piece of waste ground, and that its use had been exhausted.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Go down Suggesting the location of the potter’s house or workshop in some valley near the city. The precise spot was in the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, the place made famous forever by the prophecy of Zechariah, (Zec 11:13,) the fulfilment of which is recorded by Matthew.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 18:2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Ver. 2. Arise, and go down to the potter’s house.] Whether the prophet was to go actually to the potter’s house, or in vision only, it matters not. This we know, that our Saviour did actually wash his disciples’ feet, and at another time set a child in the midst of them when they were striving about the primacy, expounding to them afterwards what he meant; and so it might well be here. It may not be amiss for us to go down oft with Jeremiah to the potter’s house in our meditations – to consider, I mean, our original, K ; as the “first man, Adam, was of the earth earthy,” so are we ex lute lutei, from the clay, clayish.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the potter’s house. Note the lesson, set to Jeremiah there: that Jehovah never mends what man has marred. He always substitutes something new. The interpretation belongs to “THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL”, and, that being “marred”, the new “nation” is to be substituted. See Mat 21:43. Compare Rom 11:7. Eze 36:25-28. The application belongs to:
(1) THE COVENANT (Deu 6:25), but it was marred (Jer 31:32): for the New Covenant, see Heb 8:7-13.
(2) ORDINANCES, marred (Isa 1:11-14); new (Heb 10:6-9. Col 2:14, Col 2:17. Gal 1:4, Gal 1:3, Gal 1:8-11).
(3) PRIESTHOOD (Heb 7:11-28).
(4) KING (2Sa 7:12-16). Compare Psa 72. Isa 9:6; Isa 11:1-9; Isa 32:1-8. Luk 1:31-33.
(5) MAN, marred (Gen 3, Rom 8:7. Rom 17:9. Psa 14:2; Psa 53:2. Joh 3:6); new (2Co 5:17, 2Co 5:18).
(6) THE BODY, marred (Gen 3, Heb 9:27); the new (1Co 15:35, 1Co 15:44, 1Co 15:46, 1Co 15:47).
(7) THE HEAVEN AND EARTH, marred (Gen 3, 2Pe 3:7); the new (2Pe 3:13). Psa 85:10, Psa 85:13. Isa 65:17, &c.
(8) THE CHURCH, marred (2Ti 1:15 (compare Act 19:10; Act 20:29); Jer 2:18; Jer 3:8; Jer 4:3, Jer 4:4); new (Eph 2:20-22; Eph 4:4).
wrought = was working.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
am 3396, bc 608
and go: Jer 13:1, Jer 19:1, Jer 19:2, Isa 20:2, Eze 4:1 – Eze 5:1, Amo 7:7, Heb 1:1
cause: Jer 23:22, Act 9:6
Reciprocal: Isa 64:8 – are the clay Jer 27:2 – put Jer 43:9 – great Eze 12:3 – prepare
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 18:2. Jeremiah does not know what lesson the Lord has in store for him because nothing had ever been said before about a potter. He was to get the message while seeing the potter at work, and thus he would receive inspiration through both eyes and ears in the same connection.