חֶ֫רֶשׂ
che.re.s (H2789)
earthenware
AI Word Study
# Cherés: Biblical Earthenware The Hebrew word *cherés* designates earthenware or pottery objects, a material category that appears seventeen times throughout the biblical text. This term identifies a specific class of manufactured goods distinct from metal, stone, or wooden items—goods created from shaped and fired clay. The word's presence across multiple biblical books suggests that pottery held regular significance in ancient Israelite life and discourse. The frequency of *cherés* appearances indicates that earthenware was common enough in biblical society to warrant repeated mention in written texts. Rather than denoting a rare or ceremonial substance, the word reflects everyday material culture. Pottery vessels served practical domestic functions—storage, cooking, and transport—making them ordinary elements of household and economic life. The consistent use of a single term for this material category suggests that ancient speakers recognized earthenware as a distinct and recognizable commodity. Without access to the specific biblical contexts where *cherés* appears, the full range of its usage cannot be determined from the lexicon data alone. However, the word's modest occurrence rate (17 times) and basic definition indicate it was neither peripheral to biblical language nor overwhelmingly dominant in discussions of material goods. It represents a straightforward descriptive term for a ubiquitous ancient commodity.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
But the earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken; and if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, it shall be scoured, and rinsed in water.
Every earthen vessel into which any of them falls and all that is in it shall be unclean. You shall break it.
The priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.
He shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.
“ ‘The earthen vessel, which he who has the discharge touches, shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.
The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and the priest shall take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
His undersides are like sharp potsherds, leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
Like silver dross on an earthen vessel are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart.
He will break it as a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there won’t be found among the broken pieces a piece good enough to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’
Thus said Yahweh, “Go, and buy a potter’s earthen container, and take some of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.’
The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
You will even drink it and drain it out. You will gnaw the broken pieces of it, and will tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,’ says the Lord Yahweh.