father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
clay
הַחֹ֙מֶר֙ha.Cho.mer
H2563
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
potter
יֹצְרֵ֔נוּyo.tze.Re.nu
H3335
to mould into a form · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
work
וּמַעֲשֵׂ֥הu.ma.'a.Seh
H4639
an action (good or bad) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
hand
יָדְךָ֖ya.de.Kha
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Psalms 119:73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.
Jeremiah 18:2-6 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Psalms 138:8 The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.
Psalms 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Isaiah 29:16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not…
Isaiah 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the he…
Isaiah 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashionet…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 64:6–end
As we have the Lamentations of Jeremiah, so here we have the Lamentations of Isaiah; the subject of both is the same - the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the sin of Israel that brought that destruction - only with this difference, Isaiah sees it at a distance and laments it by the Spirit of prophecy, Jeremiah saw it accomplished. In these verses,
I. The people of God in their affliction confess and bewail their sins, thereby justifying God in their afflictions, owning themselves unworthy of his mercy, and thereby both improving their troubles and preparing for deliverance. Now that they were under divine rebukes for sin they had nothing to trust to but the mere mercy of God an…
father-- (Isa 63:16).
clay . . . potter-- (Isa 29:16; Isa 45:9). Unable to mould themselves aright, they beg the sovereign will of God to mould them unto salvation, even as He made them at the first, and is their "Father."
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 64:8
But, now, O Lord, thou art our Father "But thou, O Jehovah, thou art our Father" - For ועתה veattah, and now, five MSS., one of them ancient, and the two oldest editions, 1486 and 1488, have ואתה veattah, and thou, and so the Chaldee seems to have read. The repetition has great force. The other word may be well spared. "But now, O Lord, thou art our Father." How very affectionate is the complaint in this and the following verses! But how does the distress increase, when they recollect the desolations of the temple, and ruin of public worship, Isa 64:11 : "Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire," etc.
We all are the work of thy hand - Three MSS. (t…
But now, O Lord, thou art our father,.... Notwithstanding all that we have done against thee, and thou hast done to us, the relation of a father continues; thou art our Father by creation and adoption; as he was in a particular manner to the Jews, to whom belonged the adoption; and therefore this relation is pleaded, that mercy might be shown them; and so the Targum,
"and thou, Lord, thy mercies towards us "are" many (or let them be many) as a father towards "his" children.''
We are the clay, and thou our potter: respecting their original formation out of the dust of the earth; and so expressing humility in themselves, and yet ascribing greatness to God, who had curiously formed them, as t…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 8 and following) And now, Lord, you are our father, and we are clay; you are our potter, and all our works are the work of your hands. Do not be exceedingly angry, Lord, and do not remember our iniquity any longer. Look, your people are all of us. The city of your holy ones has become a desert; Zion has become a desert, Jerusalem is desolate. Our house of sanctification and glory, where our fathers praised you, has become a burning ruin, and all our desirable things have turned to ruins. Will you restrain yourself from punishing us, Lord, and be silent? Will you afflict us severely? - LXX: And now, Lord, you are our father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry with us, Lord, and do not remember our sins forever. Look now, for we are all your people. Your holy city has become a wilderness, Zion has become a desolation, Jerusalem a curse. Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins. And above all these things you have endured, O Lord. And you have remained silent and humbled us greatly. If we consider our own merits, we must despair. But if we consider your mercy, you who chastise every son whom you receive, we dare to pour forth prayers (Hebrews 12). For you are our father, who deemed to say: My firstborn son is Israel (Ezekiel 4:22). And although we are but clay and the work of your hands, and you are our creator; and not even a potter's vessel can answer why it was made thus or so: yet knowing that we are your children, we dare to say: Do not be angry, Lord, that is sufficient. We do not forbid anger, nor do we seek your patience beyond measure, through which we have stored up anger for ourselves on the day of wrath. But we beseech you, do not be excessively angry with us, do not remember the iniquity of our retaliation and vengeance at the time of our vengeance: but rather look upon your people, who were once called your people. And have mercy on the city of your sanctuary, in which your name has been invoked. This city is called Zion and Jerusalem, which the rushing of the river gladdens; and in which there was once a gazebo of virtues and contemplation of peace (Ps. 43). Moreover, your house, that is, the sanctuary of our sanctification and glory, in which our fathers praised you, has fallen into…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Father — A name applied (1) to any ancestor (Deut. 1:11; 1 Kings 15:11; Matt. 3:9; 23:30, etc.); and (2) as a title of respect to a chief, ruler, or elder, etc. (Judg. 17:10; 18:19; 1 Sam. 10:12; 2 Kings…
Fear of the Lord the — Is in the Old Testament used as a designation of true piety (Prov. 1:7; Job 28:28; Ps. 19:9). It is a fear conjoined with love and hope, and is therefore not a slavish dread, but rather filial…
Pottery — The art of, was early practised among all nations. Various materials seem to have been employed by the potter. Earthenware is mentioned in connection with the history of Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18), of…
Art · .Of the potter — .Of the potter
Arts Of The · Potter — Potter
Clay · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Man · Compared to: Clay in the potter’s hand — Compared to: Clay in the potter’s hand
Pottery · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Privileges Of Saints · Having God for their: Father — Having God for their: Father
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And now, O Jehovah. After having complained of their miseries, by which they were almost overwhelmed, they now more openly ask pardon from God and a mitigation of their distresses, and with greater boldness plead with God that still they are his children. Adoption alone could encourage them to cherish favorable hopes, that they might not cease to rely on their Father, though overwhelmed by the load of afflictions. And this order should be carefully observed; for, in order that we may be truly humbled in our hearts, we need to be cast down, and laid low, and almost crushed. But when despair seizes us, we must lay hold on this altar of consolation, that, "since God has been pleased to elect us…
This was the case when the measure of Israel's sins had become full. They were carried into exile, where they sank deeper and deeper. The great mass of the people proved themselves to be really massa perdita, and perished among the heathen. But there were some, though a vanishingly small number, who humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God, and, when redemption could not be far off, wrestled in such prayers as these, that the nation might share it in its entirety, and if possible not one be left behind. With ועתּה the existing state of sin and punishment is placed among the things of the past, and the petition presented that the present moment of prayer may have all the significance o…
