Jeremiah 18:6 ““O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says YHWH. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!”

The Hebrew word for clay is homer H2563 – ḥōmer, also like mortar or cement. Interestly the first time this words appears in Hebrew Scripture is with the building of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:3. But comparing us humans to clay, is only done by Job (which uses this comparison a lot!), Isaiah and Jeremiah. But in the book of Daniel, Daniel uses another Hebrew word (only found in Daniel) for potter’s clay, Hasap H2635 – ḥăsap̄. Daniel 2:34 says, ““You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.”

Clay is from the dust of the earth, where we read how YHWH made Adam in Genesis 2:7, “And YHWH Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” After Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden, YHWH says in Genesis 3:19 “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return“.

Job 10:9 “Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again?”

Isa 64:8 “But now, O YHWH, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.”