Potsherd
Summary
A potsherd is a broken piece of pottery, used in Scripture as a symbol of worthlessness, human frailty, and the futility of striving against one's Maker.
☩Literal Usage
A potsherd (Hebrew cheres, from the root 'to scrape') is simply a fragment of broken earthenware. Job used a potsherd to scrape himself when afflicted with boils. Sites of ancient towns built with crude brick are often covered with broken pottery at the surface, as the more durable fragments remain after the brick has disintegrated.
☩Figurative Significance
Scripture uses potsherds to represent worthlessness and insignificance. David, in his prophetic psalm of Messiah's suffering, cried 'My strength is dried up like a potsherd'—describing the drying up of vital juices that caused Christ's excessive thirst on the cross. The prophet Isaiah used the image to rebuke human presumption: 'Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth'—illustrating the suicidal madness of contending with one's Creator.
Related Verses4 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Potsherd," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. VIII (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Potsherd," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. IV (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Potsherd," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).
- 4.George Morrish, "Potsherd," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).