Job 10:9
in Job 10Please remember that You molded me like clay. Would You now return me to dust?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast fashioned me as clay; And wilt thou bring me into dust again?
KJV
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
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This verse in Job 10
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay - There is evident allusion here to the creation of man, and to the fact that he was moulded from the dust of the earth - a fact which would be preserved by tradition; see Gen 2:7. The fact that God had moulded the human form as the potter moulds the clay, is one that is often referred to in the Scriptures; compare Rom 9:20-
This site's exposition
Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me
on Job 10:8-12
"Your hands shaped me" opens an argument from workmanship to care. "Your care has preserved my spirit" turns toward tenderness, the Hebrew carrying the sense of watchful, sustaining care. A potter who shaped the vessel so closely has no reason to smash it, and Job puts that question to God.
This site's exposition
You molded me like clay
Barnes hears an echo of Genesis 2:7, where God formed man from the dust. Matthew Henry notes that the saints have prayed the same way at Isaiah 64:8, where God is the potter. The potter who shaped the vessel is asked why he would grind it back to dust.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Since he had generally posited that he had been formed and created by God, he proceeds specifically to the manner of his creation comparing himself with someone who wants remind someone of something which he seems to have forgotten. He explains everything to him part …
Remember, I pray Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay. The spirits of the Angels did for this reason sin without forgiveness, because they might have stood the stronger in proportion as no mixture with flesh held them in bonds. But man for this reason obtained pardon after sin, that in a body of flesh he got that wherein he should be beneath himself.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
"Thou hast made me, as the clay, by an act of sovereignty; and wilt thou by a like act of sovereignty unmake me again? If so, I must submit." 3. "Wilt thou destroy the work of thy own hands?" It is a plea the saints have often used in prayer, We are the clay and thou our potter, Isa. lxiv.
Clay - As a potter makes a vessel of clay; so this may note both the frailty of man's nature, which of itself decays and perishes, and doth not need such violent shocks to overthrow it; and the excellency of the Divine artifice commended from the meanness of the materials; which is an argument why God should not destroy it.
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
We are earthen vessels, mean in our original, and soon broken in pieces, made as the clay. Let not therefore the thing formed say unto him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? We must not be proud of our bodies, because the matter is from the earth, yet not dishonour our bodies, because the mould and shape are from the divine wisdom.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
clay--Job 10:10 proves that the reference here is, not so much to the perishable nature of the materials, as to their wonderful fashioning by the divine potter.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Thou hast made me as the clay - Thou hast fashioned me, according to thy own mind, out of a mass of clay: after so much skill and pains expended, men might naturally suppose they were to have a permanent being; but thou hast decreed to turn them into dust!
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Did you not pour me like milk Concerning the drop from which I was born.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| זְכָר־ | zekhor- | remember | H2142 → | 230 times |
| נָ֭א | na' | please | H4994 → | 404 times |
| כִּי־ | ki- | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| כַחֹ֣מֶר | khachomer | like <the> clay | H2563 → | 31 times |
| עֲשִׂיתָ֑נִי | ʾasitani | you made me | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| וְֽאֶל־ | veel- | and to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| עָפָ֥ר | ʾafar | dust | H6083 → | 110 times |
| תְּשִׁיבֵֽנִי׃ | teshiveni | will you turn back? me | H7725 → | 1056 times |
זְכָר־remember
zekhor-H2142 →230 times
נָ֭אplease
na'H4994 →404 times
כִּי־that
ki-H3588 →4482 times
כַחֹ֣מֶרlike <the> clay
khachomerH2563 →31 times
עֲשִׂיתָ֑נִיyou made me
ʾasitaniH6213 →2628 times
וְֽאֶל־and to
veel-H413 →5510 times
עָפָ֥רdust
ʾafarH6083 →110 times
תְּשִׁיבֵֽנִי׃will you turn back? me
teshiveniH7725 →1056 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 2:7Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 12:7
before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
- 1 Corinthians 15:45
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being;” the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
- 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.
- Ecclesiastes 12:7
Through
Isaiah 64:8But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
it leads to
- Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
- Psalms 119:73
Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.
- Jeremiah 18:2–6
“Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will reveal My message to you.”
- Psalms 138:8
The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me. O LORD, Your loving devotion endures forever— do not abandon the works of Your hands.
- Ephesians 2:10
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book IX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.