From Nave’s Topical Bible
Clay
Every passage the 1896 Nave’s Topical Biblegathers under this heading, in Nave’s own arrangement and then in Bible order. MannaFest has not written this page — it is the older index, transcribed, with the Word travelling beside each reference.
- 12Passages listed
- 7Books of the 66
- 1896Nave's edition
How Nave’s arranged it
- Man formed fromJob 33:6
- Seals made ofJob 38:14
- Used by potterIsaiah 29:16Isaiah 41:25Isaiah 45:9
- Blind man's eyes anointed withJohn 9:6
- FIGURATIVEJob 4:19Psalms 40:2Isaiah 45:9Isaiah 64:8Jeremiah 18:6Romans 9:21
- SYMBOLICALDaniel 2:33–41
The passages, in Bible order (12)
The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 12 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.
- Job 4:19
how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
Commentary on Job 4:192 voices
Behold, His servants are not stedfast, and in His Angels He found folly: How much more in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which shall be consumed as by the moth? Though the Angelical nature, by being fixed in contemplation of the Creator, remains unchangeable in its own state, yet hereby, that it is a created being, it admits in itself the variableness of change. Now to be changed is to go from one thing into another, and to be without stability in one's self.
Gregory the Dialogist· Morals on the Book of Job, Book VPatristic
How much less - (אף 'aph). This particle has the general sense of addition, accession, especially of something more important;” yea more, besides, even.” Gesenius. The meaning here is, “how much more true is this of man!” He puts no confidence in his angels; he charges them with frailty; how much more strikingly true must this be of man!
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
- Job 33:6
I am just like you before God; I was also formed from clay.
Commentary on Job 33:62 voices
Behold, God made me as well as thee, and I am also formed of the same clay; yet let not my wonder terrify thee, and my eloquence be burdensome to thee. What then is meant by Eliu acknowledging the order of his true creation, and not knowing the limits of proper speech? What by his putting himself on a level with Job when created, and setting himself above him when about to speak?
Gregory the Dialogist· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIIIPatristic
I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay - Mr. Good, and before him none other that I have seen, has most probably hit the true meaning: - “Behold, I am thy fellow. I too was formed by God out of the clay.” The word כפיך kephicha, which we translate according to thy wish, and which, if Hebrew, would mean like to thy mouth; he considers as pure Arabic, with a Hebrew postfix, (Arabic) kefoo, signifying fellow, equal, like.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the BibleEvangelical
- Job 38:14
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.
Commentary on Job 38:142 voices
The seal shall be restored as clay, and shall stand as a garment. [ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION] What else but 'clay' did the Lord find the people of Israel, whom He came unto when given up to the practices of the Gentiles, and toiling at bricks in Egypt? And whilst He led it forth by so many miracles to the land of promise, and filled it, when brought thither, with the knowledge of His wisdom, whilst He conferred on it so many secret mysteries by means of Prophecy, what else did He make it but a 'seal' for preserving His mystery?
Gregory the Dialogist· Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXIXPatristic
It is turned as clay to the seal - The earth, like soft clay, is capable of modifying itself in endless ways, and assuming infinite forms. As a proof of this, see the astonishing variety of plants, flowers, and fruits, and the infinitely diversified hues, odours, tastes, consistency, and properties, of its vegetable productions. There seems to be an allusion here to the sealing of clay, which I believe has been, and is now, frequent in the East.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the BibleEvangelical
- Psalms 40:2
He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.
Commentary on Psalms 40:21 voice
Christ has heard the prayer of his own servants and has brought us out from the pit of misery and from the mire of dregs. We were drowning there; our whole flesh was clinging to the mire, trapped in the whirlpool of our sins. Our soul was powerless to save itself; fallen and ruined as it was by the multiplicity and dreadfulness of our offenses. Thanks be to the Lord Jesus, God's only Son, who came down from heaven to forgive us our sins.
Ambrose of Milan· Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic PsalmsPatristic
- Isaiah 29:16
You have turned things upside down, as if the potter were regarded as clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pottery say of the potter, “He has no understanding”?
Commentary on Isaiah 29:161 voice
God comes down to the level of sinful men and women; the good Lord speaks with his rebellious servants; the holy one calls those who are impure to forgiveness. Humanity created out of mud addresses its Fashioner with familiarity; dust converses with its Maker. Let …
Sahdona the Syrian· BOOK OF PERFECTION 5Patristic
- Isaiah 41:25
I have raised up one from the north, and he has come—one from the east who calls on My name. He will march over rulers as if they were mortar, like a potter who treads the clay.
Commentary on Isaiah 41:251 voice
(Verse 25) He stirred up from the north, and he will come from the rising sun: he will call my name, and he will bring magistrates like clay: and like a potter treading the earth. LXX: But I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun; they shall call upon my name. Let the princes come and be like the potter's vessel, and let the potter tread down the clay. Yet he speaks against the idols, and those who did not want to abandon them after the coming of Christ.
Jerome· Commentary on IsaiahPatristic
- Isaiah 45:9
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?
Commentary on Isaiah 45:92 voices
(Verse 9 and following) Woe to those who contradict their maker, a pot made of clay, and say to the one who formed them, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no hands.' Woe to those who say to their father, 'What are you begetting?' or to their mother, 'What are you in labor with?' This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel, and its maker: Ask me about the things to come, concerning my children, and about the work of my hands, give me orders.
Jerome· Commentary on IsaiahPatristic
Wo unto him that striveth with his Maker! - This verse commences a new subject. Its connection with the preceeding is not very obvious. It may be designed to prevent the objections and cavils of the unbelieving Jews who were disposed to complain against God, and to arraign the wisdom of his dispensations in regard to them, in permitting them to be oppressed by their enemies, and in promising them deliver ance instead of preventing their captivity. So Lowth understands it.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)Evangelical
- Isaiah 64:8
But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
- Jeremiah 18:6
“O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
Commentary on Jeremiah 18:62 voices
"And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Shall I not be able to do to you as the potter, O house of Israel? says the Lord." Each one understands the things written according to his ability, the one more superficially, as though drawing his understanding from them from a surface spring, the other more deeply, as one drawing up from a well. And both can be helped, since the same thing is for one a spring and for the other a well.
Origen of Alexandria· HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18Patristic
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.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the BibleEvangelical
- Daniel 2:33–41
its legs were iron, and its feet were part iron and part clay.
Commentary on Daniel 2:33–411 voice
"His feet," etc. Hippolytus: In the vision of the prophet, the ten horns are the things that are yet to be.
Hippolytus of Rome· Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments - Scholia on DanielPatristic
- John 9:6
When Jesus had said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man’s eyes.
Commentary on John 9:61 voice
Anointed the eyes of the blind man - It would be difficult to find out the reason which induced our Lord to act thus. It is certain, this procedure can never be supposed to have been any likely medical means to restore sight to a man who was born blind; this action, therefore, had no tendency to assist the miracle. If his eye-lids had been only so gummed together that they needed nothing but to be suppled and well washed, it is not likely that this could possibly have been omitted from his birth until now.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the BibleEvangelical
- Romans 9:21
Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?