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Potsherd

From: Concise Bible Dictionary: P By: George A. Morrish

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2-3rd Century AD Pottery Shard

A fragment of pottery, to which man is compared when he strives with his Maker (Isa. 45:9⁹Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? (Isaiah 45:9)). David quotes the word in the Psalm prophetical of the Lord’s sacrificial sufferings, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd” (Psa. 22:15¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. (Psalm 22:15)). It is employed literally in Job 2:8⁸And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes. (Job 2:8); Proverbs 26:23²³Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. (Proverbs 26:23) and translated “sherd” in Isaiah 30:14¹⁴And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit. (Isaiah 30:14) and Ezekiel 23:34³⁴Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 23:34).

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Concise Bible Dictionary: P

• Pleiades (Kimah)

• Plough, Plow, To

• Plumbline, Plummet

• Pomegranates, Rimmon

• Pontius Pilate

• Poplar (Libneh)

• Posts (Ruts)

• Potentate (δυνάστης, 'powerful one')

• Potsherd

• Potter's Field