Pot

Pot a term applicable to so many sorts of vessels that it can scarcely be restricted to any one in particular. See BASIN; see CUP, etc. But from the places where the word is used we may collect the uses, and also in part the materials of the utensils implied. This vessel, so necessary in cooking and serving up food (Nu 11:8; Jg 6:19; 1Sa 2:14; 2Ki 4:38 sq.; 2Ch 35:13; Isa 65:4; Mic 3:3; Eze 11:3; Eze 24:3 sq.), derives its ordinary names from its use in boiling. It was commonly, among the Israelites, made of clay (Heb. חֹמֶר, Gr. πήλος; comp. Isa 29:16; Isa 45:9; Jer 18:4). But there were also brazen pots (Le 8:28), especially in the sanctuary (1Ki 7:45; 2Ki 25:14). The trade of the potters, called יֹצרַים(comp. Gesenius, Monumenta Phoen. p. 161) or יֹצדֵי חֶרֶשׁ (Jer 19:1), in Greek κεραμεῖς, was a separate pursuit, to whose mysteries allusions are often made (Jer 18:2 sq.; Sirach 38:30 sq., 33 sq.). It was necessary first to work the clay with the feet, to make it plastic (Isa 41:25), and then to shape it with the hand (Jer 18:4,6; Sirach 33:13; 38:30) and the Oriental potter's wheel (אָבנִיַם Jer 18:3; see Gesenius, Thesaur. 1, 16). The vessels were glazed (Sirach 38:31; Pr 26:23), and then burned in the oven (κάμινος, Sirach, 1. c.). BAhr (Symbolik, 2, 293) and Sommer (Bibl. Abhandl. 1, 213) assume, indeed, that the Hebrews were ignorant of glazing, and explain the passages (Le 6:21; Le 11:33; Le 15:12) which command the breaking of earthen vessels made unclean by this want of glazing. There are, indeed, no pots extant from Egyptian antiquity, but earthen figures show a glazing upon them; and it would be unreasonable to suppose that the Egyptians had failed to apply the art to their vessels. There is nothing inexplicable in the command to break the defiled vessels, inasmuch as they were of little value; and any of them might easily have lost part of its glazing, and so taken in some of the unclean substance; so that breaking was the safest method of disposing of them. Such a command would also produce more care in housekeeping to avoid uncleanness (comp. Descript. de l'Egypte, vol. 2, pl. 87 sq.; 5, pl. 75; Wilkinson , 1, 164). See POTTERY.

The following are the words so rendered in the English Bible:

1. אָסוּך, asuk (Sept. ἀγγεῖον), applied to holding oil (2Ki 4:2), probably was an earthen jar, deep and narrow, without handles, apparently like the Roman and Egyptian amphora, inserted in a stand of wood or stone (see Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1, 47; Sandys, Trav, p. 150). See PITCHER.