What Does Jeremiah 18:4 Mean in the King James?
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
“Made it again” says the potter turns back to the work and makes another form; the marring changes the vessel, not the potter’s engagement.
THE MEANING
The image speaks to you now: what is marred is still in the potter’s hand. The potter makes another vessel as seems good to him, so the remaking does not promise a return to the former shape; it shows the work continuing through a changed form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that damage ends the work, or that repair must mean becoming exactly what you were before.
THE ROOT
וַיָּשָׁב וַיַּעֲשֵׂהוּ
vayashov vaya'asehu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
to return, turn back
“made it again” in this verse is vayashov vaya'asehu. The Hebrew says the potter returned and made the vessel, giving “again” the shape of a return to the work. The result is “another vessel,” so the return is to the act of making, not necessarily to the old form.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This related word makes the returning movement in the potter’s action easier to hear: the work turns back toward making.
meshubah: turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch shows the same root can describe a turn in the opposite direction; here the potter turns back toward the clay and continues the work.
הַיּוֹצֵר
hayyotser
GROWS FROM
יָצַר
yatsar
to form, fashion
The potter is named through the act of forming. The clay is marred while still in the potter’s hand, so the image holds damage and active formation together.
ALSO GROWS
yetser: formation, inclination
יֵצֶר
The word can name what is formed and the inward bent that takes shape, extending the image beyond the vessel’s outer form.
yetsirah: formation, creation
יְצִירָה
This branch keeps the focus on an ongoing act of shaping, the same kind of work the potter resumes with the clay.
THE PATTERN
The maker’s hand stays engaged with what it has begun, shaping and completing its work.
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.The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:THE THREAD
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.The Hebrew word for “potter” here comes from the same root as the forming word in Jeremiah’s verse. Isaiah also names the people as clay and the work of God’s hand, making plain that the marred clay remains held within the act of forming.
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