Jeremiah 18:1-3

An Object Lesson from the Making of Pottery

18:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah: ¹  18:2 “Go down at once ²  to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” ³  18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working ⁴  at his wheel. ⁵ 

[18:1]  ¹ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:” This same formula occurs ten other times in Jeremiah. It has already occurred at 7:1 and 11:1.

[18:2]  ² tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.

[18:2]  ³ tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”

[18:3]  ³ tn Heb “And behold he was working.”

[18:3]  ⁴ sn At his wheel (Heb “at the two stones”). The Hebrew expression is very descriptive of the construction of a potter’s wheel which consisted of two stones joined by a horizontal shaft. The potter rotated the wheel with his feet on the lower wheel and worked the clay with his hands on the upper. For a picture of a potter working at his wheel see I. Ben-Dor, “Potter’s Wheel,” IDB 3:846. See also the discussion regarding the making of pottery in J. L. Kelso, “Pottery,” IDB 3:846-53.