The Potter and the Clay: Understanding God's Sovereign Power Over Our Lives

Jer. 18:6–10. In vv. 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 remold, 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 (v. 7f.); 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 (v. 9f.). 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. רֶגַע, adv., in the moment, forthwith, and when repeated = now … now, now … again. Näg. maintains that the arrangement here is paratactic, so that the רֶגַע 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. נִחַם עַל as in Joel 2:13, etc. With “to pluck up,” etc., “to build,” etc., cf. 1:10. “Against which I spake,” v. 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 הָרָעָה the Keri has הָרַע, the most usual form, v. 7:30, Num. 32:13, Judg. 2:11, etc.; but the Chet. is called for by the following הַטֹּובָה and מֵרָעָתֹו. לְהֵיטִיב הַטֹּובָה, to show kindness, cf. Num. 10:32.

The emblematical interpretation of the potter with the clay lays a foundation for the prophecy that follows, vv. 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.

Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (1996). Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 8, pp. 183–184). Hendrickson. (Public Domain)