Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
6. “First of the prophets, Jeremiah proclaims distinctly what had been more or less implied throughout, that predictions were subject to no overruling necessity, but depended for their fulfilment on the moral state of those to whom they were addressed; that the most confident assurance of blessing could be frustrated by sin; that the most awful warnings of calamity could be averted by repentance.” Stanley’s J. Ch. II. 445. Cp. the story of Jonah, and in Ezekiel (Jer 18:21 ff., Jer 33:12 ff.) the application of the same thought to individuals.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
So are ye in mine hand – When a vessel was ruined, the potter did not throw it away, but crushed it together, dashed it back upon the wheel, and began his work afresh, until the clay had taken the predetermined shape. It was Gods purpose that Judaea should become the proper scene for the manifestation of the Messiah, and her sons be fit to receive the Saviours teaching and carry the good tidings to all lands. If therefore at any stage of the preparation the Jewish nation took such a course as would have frustrated this purpose of Providence, it was crushed by affliction into an unresisting mass, in which the formative process began again immediately.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Cannot I do with you as this potter?] Have I not a right to do with a people whom I have created as reason and justice may require? If they do not answer my intentions, may I not reject and destroy them; and act as this potter, make a new vessel out of that which at first did not succeed in his hands?
It is generally supposed that St. Paul has made a very different use of this similitude from that mentioned above. See Ro 9:20, c. His words are, “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” To this every sensible and pious man will answer, Undoubtedly he has. But would any potter make an exceedingly fair and good vessel on purpose to dash it to pieces when he had done? Surely no! And would or could, the God of infinite perfection and love make millions of immortal souls on purpose for eternal perdition, as the horrible decree of reprobation states? No! This is a lie against all the attributes of God. But does not the text state that he can, out of the same lump, the same mass of human nature, make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour? Yes. But the text does not say, what the horrible decree says, that he makes one part, and indeed the greater, for eternal perdition. But what then is the meaning of the text? Why evidently this: As out of the same mass of clay a potter may make a flagon for the table and a certain utensil for the chamber, the one for a more honourable, the other for a less honourable use, though both equally necessary to the owner so God, out of the same flesh and blood, may make the tiller of the field and the prophet of the Most High; the one in a more honourable, the other in a less honourable employ; yet both equally necessary in the world, and equally capable of bringing glory to God in their respective places. But if the vessel be marred in his hand, under his providential and gracious dealings, he may reject it as he did the Jews, and make another vessel, such as he is pleased with, of the Gentiles; yet even these marred vessels, the reprobate Jews, are not finally rejected; for all Israel shall be saved in (through) the Lord, i.e., Jesus Christ. And should the Gentiles act as the Jews have done, then they also shall be cut off, and God will call his Church by another name. See Clarke on Ro 9:22 and below.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God now expoundeth to the prophet his design in bidding him go to the potters house, it was to instruct or confirm him in the power that he had over his creatures. For, saith he, as is the clay to the potter, so is the house of Israel (and indeed so are all the sons and daughters of men) unto God; God hath the same power over them that a potter hath over the clay, and a greater right to do what he pleaseth with them, than any potter hath relating to the clay; the clay is but the potters purchase, not his creature, but man is Gods creature. God, by his prophet Isaiah, made use of the same similitude, Isa 45:9. So doth the apostle, Rom 9:20. That God hath an absolute sovereign power to do what he pleaseth with the work of his hands, can be denied by no men of sense, whether God useth this his sovereignty in the eternal punishment of sinners, that is another thing; he hath a sovereign power, but he acteth as a just judge, rendering to every man according to his works.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Refuting the Jews’ relianceon their external privileges as God’s elect people, as if God couldnever cast them off. But if the potter, a mere creature, has power tothrow away a marred vessel and raise up other clay from the ground, afortiori God, the Creator, can cast away the people who proveunfaithful to His election and can raise others in their stead(compare Isa 45:9; Isa 64:8;Rom 9:20; Rom 9:21).It is curious that the potter’s field should have been thepurchase made with the price of Judas’ treachery (Mat 27:9;Mat 27:10: a potter’s vesseldashed to pieces, compare Psa 2:8;Psa 2:9; Rev 2:27),because of its failing to answer the maker’s design, being the veryimage to depict God’s sovereign power to give reprobates todestruction, not by caprice, but in the exercise of His righteousjudgment. Matthew quotes Zechariah’s words (Zec 11:12;Zec 11:13) as Jeremiah’sbecause the latter (Jer18:1-19:15) was the source from which the former derived hissummary in Zec 11:12; Zec 11:13[HENGSTENBERG].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord,…. Make, and mar, and remake at pleasure? certainly he could. God is a sovereign Being, and has a sovereign and uncontrollable power over his creatures; he has an indisputable right unto them, and can dispose of them as he pleases; he has as good a right to them, and as great power over them, as the potter has to and over his clay, and a better and greater; since they are made by him, and have their all from him, their being, life, and motion; whereas the clay is not made by the potter; it is only the vessel that is made of the clay by him, which has its form from him; if therefore the potter has such power over the clay, which he did not make, as to cast it into another forth as it pleases him, and especially when marred; the Lord has an undoubted power over men, and a just right to change their, state and circumstances as he pleases; nor have they any reason to complain of him, especially when they have marred themselves by their own sins and transgressions; which was the present case of the house of Israel, or the Jews; see Isa 29:16;
behold, as the clay [is] in the potter’s hand; and he can form and fashion it as he pleases, and it is not in the power of the clay to resist and hinder him:
so [are] ye in mine hand, O house of Israel; and I can dispose of you as I please, and put you in what circumstances it seems good unto me, drive you from your land, and scatter you among the nations; nor can you hinder me from doing this, or whatever else is my pleasure. And this his sovereign power and pleasure, and as exercised in a way of mercy and equity, are exemplified in the following cases.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In Jer 18:6-10 the Lord discloses to the prophet the truth lying in the potter’s treatment of the clay. The power the potter has over the clay to remould, according to his pleasure, the vessel he had formed from it if it went wrong; the same power God possesses over the people of Israel. This unlimited power of God over mankind is exercised according to man’s conduct, not according to a decretum absolutum or unchangeable determination. If he pronounces a people’s overthrow or ruin, and if that people turn from its wickedness, He repeals His decree (Jer 18:7.); and conversely, if He promises a people welfare and prosperity, and if that people turn away from Him to wickedness, then too He changes His resolve to do good to it (Jer 18:9.). Inasmuch as He is even now making His decree known by the mouth of the prophet, it follows that the accomplishment of Jeremiah’s last utterances is conditioned by the impression God’s word makes on men. , adv., in the moment, forthwith, and when repeated = now…now, now…again. Ng. maintains that the arrangement here is paratactic, so that the does not belong to the nearest verb, but to the main idea, i.e., to the apodosis in this case. The remark is just; but the word does not mean suddenly, but immediately, and the sense is: when I have spoken against a people, and this people repents, then immediately I let it repent me. as in Joe 2:13, etc. With “to pluck up,” etc., “to build,” etc., cf. Jer 1:10. “Against which I spake,” Jer 18:8, belongs to “that people,” and seems as if it might be dispensed with; but is not therefore spurious because the lxx have omitted it. For the Keri has , the most usual form, Jer 7:30, Num 32:13; Jdg 2:11, etc.; but the Chet. is called for by the following and . , to show kindness, cf. Num 10:32.
The emblematical interpretation of the potter with the clay lays a foundation for the prophecy that follows, Jer 18:11-17, in which the people are told that it is only by reason of their stiffnecked persistency in wickedness that they render threatened judgment certain, whereas by return to their God they might prevent the ruin of the kingdom.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Now, in the application, we must notice how things correspond: As the clay is at the will and under the power of the potter, so men are at the will of God: God then is compared to the potter. There is indeed no comparison between things which are equal, but the Prophet argues from the less to the greater. Then God, with respect to men, is said to be the potter, for we are the clay before him. We must also notice the variety in what was formed: from the same clay one vessel is made, then another different from the first. These three things that are compared ought to be specially observed. It is then said, cannot I, as the potter, do with you, O house of Israel? God includes here two of these comparisons, he compares himself to the potter, and he compares the people to clay. We know that God has much greater power over men than a mortal man over the clay; for however he may form it into vessels he is yet not the creator of the clay. Then much greater authority has God over men than the potter over the clay. But the comparison, as I have said, is of the greater with the less, as though he had said, “The potter can form the clay at his will; am I inferior to him? or, is not my power at least, equal to the power of the artificer, who is a mortal and of an abject condition?” Then he adds, with you, or to you, O house of Israel? as though he had said, “Trust ye in your own excellency as you please, yet ye are not better than the clay, when ye consider what I am and what I can do to you.”
We have now seen two of the comparisons; the third follows–that God can turn us here and there, and change us at his will. Then how foolishly do men trust in their present good fortune; for in a single moment their condition can be altered, as there is nothing certain on the earth.
But we must bear in mind what I have already stated — that vain was the confidence by which the Jews deluded themselves; for they thought that God was bound to them, and so they promised themselves a state of perpetuity, and, as though they could with impunity despise the whole law, they ever boasted that the covenant, by which God had adopted the seed of Abraham, was hereditary. Now the Prophet shews that the covenant was in such a way hereditary, that yet the Jews ought to have regarded it as it were an adventitious benefit, as though he had said, “What God gave you he can take away at any time; there is then nothing certain to you, except so far as God will be propitious to you.” In short, he reminds them that the whole of their safety depended on God’s gratuitous layout, as though he had said, “Ye have nothing as your own, but what God has conferred on you is at his will and pleasure; he can to-day take away even what he had yesterday given you. What meaneth then this foolish boasting, when ye say that ye are exempted from the common lot of men?”
The Jews might indeed have rightly disregarded all the dangers of the world, for God had gathered them under his own protection; they would indeed have been safe under his guardianship, had they observed mutual faithfulness, so as to be really his people as he had promised to be their God; but as they esteemed as nothing his whole law, and made void the covenant in which they foolishly gloried, the Prophet, as we see, did not without reason shake off that confidence by which they deceived themselves.
We may hence gather a useful doctrine: With regard to the whole race of man there is nothing certain or permanent in this life; for God can change our condition at any time, so as to cast down the rich and the eminent from their elevation, and also to raise up the most despised of men, according to what is said in Psa 113:7. And we know this to be true, not only as to individuals, but also as to nations and kingdoms. Many kings have so increased their power as to think themselves beyond the reach of harm; and yet we have seen that God laid them prostrate as by a sudden whirlwind: so also it has happened to powerful nations. With regard then to the condition of mankind, God shews here as in a mirror, or by a vivid spectacle, that sudden changes are often in the world: which ought to awaken us from our torpor, so that no one of us may dare to promise himself another day, or even another hour, or another moment. This is one thing; but this doctrine has a peculiar application to us; for as God has by a peculiar favor separated us from the rest of the world, so he would have us to depend wholly on his mere good will. Faith indeed ought to be tranquil, nay, it ought to disregard whatever may bring on us any terror or anxiety; but faith, where has it its seat? In heaven. Then courage is required in all the children of God, so that they may with a quiet mind disregard all the changes of the world. But we must see that the tranquillity of faith be well founded, that is, in humility. For as we cast our anchor in heaven, so also, with regard to ourselves, we ought always to he low and be humble. Whosoever then flies in vain confidence boasts in vain of faith, and falsely pretends that he trusts in God. Let it then ever come to our minds, and constantly recur to us, that our condition is not through ourselves safe and secure, but through the gratuitous goodness of God. We now see the application of this doctrine. The Prophet proceeds, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Cannot I do with you as this potter?The question implies a theory of the universe, which is neither (as some have thought) one of absolute fatalism, crushing mans freedom, nor, on the other hand, one which merges Gods sovereignty in mans power of choice. The clay can resist the potter, or can yield itself willingly to his hands to be shaped as he wills. Its being marred is through no fault of the potter, butin the framework of the parablethrough the defect of the material, and, in its application, through the resistance of the human agents whom God is fashioning. And when it is so marred one of two courses is open to the potter. He can again re-mould and fashion it to his purpose, to a new work which may be less honourable than that for which it was originally designed; or, if it be hopelessly marred, can break it and cast it away, and with fresh clay mould a fresh vessel. The history of nations and churches and individual men offers many examples of both processes. They frustrate Gods gracious purpose by their self-will, but His long-suffering leads them to repentance, and gives them, to speak after the manner of men, yet another chance of being moulded by His hands. Here the prophet invites the people, as the clay, to accept the former alternative. St. Paul, taking the same analogy, looks forward to the time when the marred vessel of Israel shall be restored to the Masters house and be honoured in His service (Rom. 9:21; Rom. 11:26). The closing verses of Brownings poem, Rabbi Ben-Ezra, in Men and Women, may be referred to as embodying the same thought :
But I need Thee, as then,
Thee, God, who mouldest men;
And since, not even while the whirl was worst,
Did Ito the wheel of life,
With shapes and colours rife,
Bound dizzilymistake my end, to slake Thy thirst,
So take and use Thy work!
Amend what flaws may lurk,
What strain o the stuff, what warpings past the aim!
My times be in Thy hand;
Perfect the cup as planned!
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DISCOURSE: 1058
THE POTTERS POWER OVER THE CLAY
Jer 18:6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potters hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.
WHILE the grandeur of the heavenly bodies fills us with a sense of our own insignificance [Note: Psa 8:3-4.], we may learn many instructive lessons from the meanest creatures upon earth. The instinctive wisdom of the crane or swallow, the provident care of the ant, and the grateful acknowledgments of the ox and ass, are proposed to us as models for our imitation [Note: Jer 8:7. Pro 6:6-8, Isa 1:3.]. Nor are works of art less capable of suggesting useful hints to a reflecting mind. In the passage before us the prophet was commanded to observe a potter forming his vessels, and to declare to the Jews that they were, notwithstanding all their boasted strength, as much subject to the will of God as the clay was to the potters will. To illustrate this we shall shew,
I.
The power of God over us
We can scarcely conceive any greater power than the potter has over the clay. He forms, or mars, or varies the shape of his vessels, as he pleases. Such is Gods power over us,
1.
Individually considered
[Every man is altogether in the hands of God. Our bodies are instantly brought low, when he sends a fierce disease to prey upon them. Nor can the physicians aid profit us, till he be pleased to bless the means prescribed [Note: Job 33:19-25.] Our souls are also entirely dependent upon him. When his time is come, the obdurate relent, the dead arise, the drooping are comforted, and the weak established. Till then, the Bible is a sealed book, and the most faithful ministers are only as sounding brass [Note: Psa 107:12-20.].]
2.
In our collective capacity
[The most flourishing families, how soon are they brought low! And how speedily may they be restored to their former prosperity [Note: Job 1:18-19; Job 42:12-13.]! Nor are the most powerful kingdoms less at his disposal. He can raise a mighty empire from the most contemptible beginnings [Note: Isa 51:1-2. Deu 7:7.], or reduce it to utter ruin in a single hour [Note: 2Ki 19:35. Exo 14:28. If this be the subject of a Fast Sermon, the circumstances of the nation may properly be adverted to in this place, and the duties inculcated under the second head must have a national, as well as personal bearing.]. As the smallest motion of the finger suffices to effect any change upon the potters clay, so the secret volition of the Almighty operates with irresistible energy through the whole creation.]
This truth being universally admitted, we shall proceed to shew,
II.
What effect the consideration of it should produce upon us
Every perfection of the Deity should occasion some correspondent emotion in our hearts. The thought of his unbounded power over us should produce in us,
1.
A holy fear
[What our deserts are, both individually and collectively, none can doubt. To repent then of all our sins, and to turn to the Lord with all our hearts, is our first duty. This is the special point inculcated on the Jewish nation by God himself [Note: Read ver. 710 and mark emphatically ver. 11.]. And where is the individual who does not feel the necessity of having it impressed on his own mind? Know then, all of you, that you are at this instant preparing either for heaven or for hell. If in your final condition you are vessels unto dishonour, the fault will be your own. If happily you prove vessels of honour, it will be solely in consequence of Gods electing love [Note: Act 9:15.], and his new-creating power [Note: Rom 9:21-23. Distinguish between by themselves, and Gods agency in .]. Cry then mightily to Goof to accomplish for you and in you all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.]
2.
A meek submission
[God best knows how to effect in you the purposes of his grace. For the most part he makes use of afflictive dispensations for our good; and, of whatever kind they be, we can have no just reason to complain. If the clay has no right to complain of the potter who forms of it a vessel such as he himself pleases, much less can a living man, who is out of hell, have right, under any circumstances, to complain of God [Note: Isa 45:9. with Rom 9:19-20.]. Under every trial, of whatever kind it be, we should say, It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.]
3.
A humble trust
[If only we lie as clay in his hands, we have nothing to fear [Note: Isa 51:12-13.]. Both men and devils are with him but as an axe or saw, with which he accomplishes his own purposes [Note: Isa 10:15.]. We have only to commit ourselves to him, and we shall have his work perfected in our hearts, and be made vessels of honour meet for the Masters use [Note: 2Ti 2:20-21.]. How weak soever, or worthless we be, God will glorify himself in our complete salvation [Note: Isa 40:27-31.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 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.
Ver. 6. O house of Israel, cannot I do with you. ] Make you or mar you at my pleasure: have I not an absolute sovereignty over you, that ye lift up the heel against me, and awake my power by your provocations?
As the clay is in the potter’s hand.] What, then, hath vain man to vaunt of? or why should any proud Arminian a say, Quod potui, miserentis est Dei; quod volui, id meae est potestatis? That I can do good, is of God’s mercy; that I will do it, is merely in mine own power? This man was sure his own potter, and not willing to owe overmuch of himself to God.
a Grevinchovius.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah’s Thirteenth Prophecy (see book comments for Jeremiah).
house of Israel. See note on Jer 2:4.
saith the LORD = [is] Jehovah’s oracle,
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 18:4, Isa 64:8, Dan 4:23, Mat 20:15, Rom 11:34
Reciprocal: Job 9:12 – What Job 10:9 – thou hast Job 33:12 – God Isa 45:9 – Shall the clay
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE POTTER AND THE CLAY
As the clay is in the potters hand.
Jer 18:6
I. Disheartened with his fruitless attempts to bring his people to repentance, Jeremiah was bidden to watch the potter at his work in the valley of Hinnom.A piece of clay placed on the wheel yielded to his touch, and reached very nearly its completion, when, through some fault in the clay, its entire structure suddenly collapsed. The wheel and the ground beneath were littered by broken pieces. Not despairing, however, the potter took the broken remnants, and made them again! It is thus that God deals with men. They may have grieved His Holy Spirit and spoiled His ideal, but so long as they will be plastic to His hand He will re-make them.
II. God wants to make the very best He can of each of his children.He puts us on His wheel, and subjects us to the discipline which He deems most likely to secure our greatest blessedness and usefulness. But, alas! how often He finds a marred vessel left on His hands when He desired and sought perfect beauty and strength! This is through no failure on His part, but because some bubble of vanity or grit of self-will has hindered Him.
When, however, this is the case He does not cast us utterly away, but puts us afresh upon the wheel, and makes us again. If He cannot do what He desired at the first, He will still make the best of us, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Let God take a life which has proved a failure; He can make of what remains of it more than men could make with all earthly advantages on their side, and with nothing to hinder its regular development.
III. When Jeremiah approached the men of Judah with a fresh message they said, There is no hope.We must take care not to drive people to renounce hope. But what a terrible mistake it is to leave the flowing water from the rock smitten on Calvary, refreshing as ice-cold water in a sultry land.
IV. The people turned against their best friend; because he warned them, they hated him; when he spoke good for them, they returned evil.He had not fully learned that law which our Master Christ laid down, that we were to forgive until seventy times seven. His expression savours of a vindictiveness which grates upon the ears attuned to the voice and spirit of Jesus; but we must never forget that he stood as the representative of God, amidst a godless nation, and was eager that God should vindicate Himself in His judgments upon His persecutors.
Illustration
If there is any force or worth in the analogy at all, it must mean that there is a form according to which God is seeking to mould men and nations. It must imply that He is patiently, continually, working for the accomplishment of this purpose. Here, then, was the mystery of a peoples repentance. If they acknowledged the Will which was working upon them, if at any time they yielded to it and desired to be formed by it, this was that conversion and inward change which He was seeking to produce.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jer 18:6. This illustration of the potter and clay has been greatly misused by some religious teachers. It has been made to teach that man (the clay) is helpless in the hands of the potter (the Lord). That his future state and usefulness is altogether in the hands of God, and whether he turns out to be a desirable character or the other kind, Is subject to the divine decree and man has nothing to do In the matter. But such a theory is contrary to the evident facts of the performance the prophet saw. It is true this verse says man ia as clay in the potters hands and also that He can do with him as the potter did the clay. But the theory ignores the fact that he first tried to make a better vessel out of the elay. and did not decide to make the leaser one until the clay failed to meet the requirements of the better. But according to the doctrine of predestination,” the potter had decided to make this particular lump of clay into a coarse vessel before he even tried to make the other. The theory even requires that the elay had been destined for this less desirable use before it was dug out of the ground, for the predestinarians teach that God decreed from all eternity who should be saved and who lost. This would be before the man was born and before he had been tried and given a chance to be made into the better vessel.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 18:6. Cannot I do with you as this potter? Have I not as absolute an authority and power over you? Nay, God has an infinitely clearer title to dominion over us than the potter has over the clay, for the potter only gives the clay its form; whereas we have both matter and form from God. As the work of his hands, made and preserved by him, and yet more as sinners redeemed by him, we are entirely in his hands, and at his disposal, and he has an undoubted right to do with us what he pleases. But as a being infinitely holy, just, and gracious, in all his conduct toward his intelligent, free, and immortal offspring, he acts by fixed rules of perfect equity and infinite goodness. He frequently dispenses favours, indeed, to individuals, families, and nations, in a way of sovereignty, but never punishes by arbitrary power. Strong is his hand, and high is his right hand, (Psa 89:13,) but, as it there follows, justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne. He asserts his absolute power, and tells us what he might do; but at the same time assures us that he will act as a merciful and righteous judge.