Jeremiah 16:8
Context16:8 “‘Do not go to a house where people are feasting and sit down to eat and drink with them either.
Jeremiah 18:2-3
Context18:2 “Go down at once 1 to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” 2 18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working 3 at his wheel. 4
1 tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.
2 tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”
3 tn Heb “And behold he was working.”
4 sn At his wheel (Heb “at the two stones”). The Hebrew expression is very descriptive of the construction of a potter’s wheel which consisted of two stones joined by a horizontal shaft. The potter rotated the wheel with his feet on the lower wheel and worked the clay with his hands on the upper. For a picture of a potter working at his wheel see I. Ben-Dor, “Potter’s Wheel,” IDB 3:846. See also the discussion regarding the making of pottery in J. L. Kelso, “Pottery,” IDB 3:846-53.