Hebrew word · H2789

חֶ֫רֶשׂ

chares

earthenware

Earthenware, a clay vessel, and especially a broken fragment of one (a potsherd).

Appears 17 times in 16 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

earthenware, clay pottery, shard, potsherd, earthen vessel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 22:15

Range of meaning

Earthenware, a clay vessel, and especially a broken fragment of one (a potsherd).

Against the English

'Potsherd' is accurate but obscure to most readers. NLT's 'sunbaked clay' gets the dryness across but loses the idea of a broken fragment.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job scrapes his sores with a ḥereś while sitting in ashes (Job 2:8). Isaiah 30:14 pictures a smashed jar with not one shard left big enough to scoop water from a cistern. Isaiah 45:9 has humans as 'a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth'. In Leviticus an earthen vessel that becomes impure must be broken (Lev 6:28; 11:33). Archaeologically, potsherds are the most common find at every Iron Age site, and people used them as scrap writing material (ostraca).

From the study of Isaiah 30:14

Range of meaning

Earthenware, clay material, and especially a potsherd, a broken piece of pottery. It is used as a picture of something worthless, dry or fragile (Ps 22:15, 'my strength is dried up like a potsherd'; Isa 45:9, 'a sherd among sherds of earth').

Against the English

'Sherd/shard' is accurate. English readers may not realise that in the ancient world a sherd was not trash but a useful household tool.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job scrapes his sores with a cheres (Job 2:8). Archaeology shows sherds reused everywhere in Iron Age Judah: as writing surfaces (ostraca such as the Lachish and Arad letters), scoops, lids and scrapers. Carrying live coals or dipping water with a sherd is exactly the kind of use the verse assumes.

From the study of Isaiah 45:9

Range of meaning

Earthenware: a clay vessel (Leviticus 6:28; 11:33; Numbers 5:17), or a broken shard (Job 2:8, where Job scrapes himself with one; Isaiah 30:14). It stands for the brittle and the worthless (Psalm 22:15; Proverbs 26:23).

Against the English

BSB 'one clay pot among many', WEB 'a clay pot among the clay pots', KJV/YLT 'potsherd'. 'Potsherd' best keeps the sense of something cheap and breakable. 'Clay pot' sounds more neutral.

Used elsewhere in the period

Shards were everywhere in ancient Israel. They were used as scrapers and scoops, and as writing material (ostraca, such as the Lachish and Arad letters). In Leviticus a contaminated clay pot could not be cleaned; it had to be smashed.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 5

  1. Leviticus 6:28 חֶ֛רֶשׂ earthenware

    The clay pot in which the sin offering is boiled must be broken; if it is boiled in a bronze pot, the pot must be scoured and rinsed with water.

  2. Leviticus 11:33 חֶ֔רֶשׂ earthenware

    If any of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it will be unclean; you must break the pot.

  3. Leviticus 14:5 חֶ֖רֶשׂ earthenware

    Then the priest shall command that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in a clay pot.

  4. Leviticus 14:50 חֶ֖רֶשׂ earthenware

    and he shall slaughter one of the birds over fresh water in a clay pot.

  5. Leviticus 15:12 חֶ֛רֶשׂ earthenware

    Any clay pot that the man with the discharge touches must be broken, and any wooden utensil must be rinsed with water.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 5:17 חָ֑רֶשׂ earthenware

    Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.

Job · 2

  1. Job 2:8 חֶ֔רֶשׂ a potsherd

    And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes.

    Here: A fragment of a broken clay pot, the most worthless and plentiful object in an ancient town. Its edge was rough and sharp enough to scrape with. For the man once called 'the greatest of all the people of the East' (1:3), it is now his only tool.

  2. Job 41:30 חָ֑רֶשׂ potsherd[s]

    His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 22:15 כַּחֶ֨רֶשׂ׀ like <the> earthenware

    My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.

    Here: 'Like the potsherd': a fired clay fragment, the driest and most worthless object in an Israelite house. Once fired, clay never takes moisture back or becomes soft again.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 26:23 חָ֑רֶשׂ earthenware

    Like glaze covering an earthen vessel are burning lips and a wicked heart.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 30:14 חֶ֔רֶשׂ a potsherd

    It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar, shattered so that no fragment can be found. Not a shard will be found in the dust large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth or to skim the water from a cistern.”

    Here: A single usable shard. In everyday life a broken pot still left useful pieces. Not even one is left here.

  2. Isaiah 45:9 חֶ֖רֶשׂ חַרְשֵׂ֣י a potsherd, potsherds of

    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’?

    Here: A fired clay pot or a broken shard of one: the cheapest, most breakable thing in the house. The complainer is described as exactly that.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 19:1 חָ֑רֶשׂ earthenware

    This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests,

  2. Jeremiah 32:14 חָ֑רֶשׂ earthenware

    “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Take these deeds—both the sealed copy and the open copy of the deed of purchase—and put them in a clay jar to preserve them for a long time.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 4:2 חֶ֔רֶשׂ earthenware

    How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

    Here: Fired clay. The same word is used for a broken shard. Clay is the opposite of gold: cheap, everywhere, easily broken, and thrown away once broken.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 23:34 חֲרָשֶׂ֛יהָ fragments its

    You will drink it and drain it; you will dash it to pieces, and tear your breasts. For I have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.