King James Bible Dictionary

This word is used of sediment found in pits or in streets (Isaiah 57:20; Jeremiah 38:60), of dust mixed with spittle (John 9:6), and of potter's clay (Isaiah 41:25; Nahum 3:14; Jeremiah 18:1-6; Romans 9:21). Clay was used for sealing (Job 38:14; Jeremiah 32:14). Our Lord's tomb may have been thus sealed (Matthew 27:66). The practice of sealing doors with clay is still common in the East. Clay was also in primitive times used for mortar (Genesis 11:3). The "clay ground" in which the large vessels of the temple were cast (1 Kings 7:46; 2 Chronicles 4:17) was a compact loam fitted for the purpose. The expression literally rendered is, "in the thickness of the ground,", meaning, "in stiff ground" or in clay.

Man formed from
Job 33:6

Seals made of
Job 38:14

Used by potter
Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 45:9

Blind man's eyes anointed with
John 9:6

Figurative
Job 4:19; Psalms 40:2; Isaiah 45:9; Isaiah 64:8; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:21

Symbolic
Daniel 2:33-41

As the sediment of water remaining in pits or in streets, the word is used frequently in the Old Testament. (Psalms 18:42; Isaiah 57:20; Jeremiah 38:6) and in the New Testament, (John 9:6) a mixture of sand or dust with spittle. It is also found in the sense of potter's clay. (Isaiah 41:25) The great seat of the pottery of the present day in Palestine is Gaza, where are made the vessels in dark-blue clay so frequently met with. Another use of clay was for sealing. (Job 38:14) Our Lord's tomb may have been thus sealed, (Matthew 27:66) as also the earthen vessel containing the evidences of Jeremiah's purchase. (Jeremiah 32:14) The seal used for public documents was rolled on the moist clay, and the tablet was then placed in the fire and baked.

CLAY, noun

1. The name of certain substances which are mixtures of silex and alumin, sometimes with lime, magnesia, alkali and metallic oxyds. A species of earths which are firmly coherent, weighty, compact, and hard when dry, but stiff, viscid and ductile when moist, and smooth to the touch; not readily diffusible in water, and when mixed, not readily subsiding in it. They contract by heat. Clays absorb water greedily, and become soft, but are so tenacious as to be molded into any shape, and hence they are the materials of bricks and various vessels, domestic and chimical.

2. In poetry and in scripture, earth in general.

3. In scripture, clay is used to express frailty, liableness to decay and destruction.

They that dwell in houses of clay Job 4:19.

CLAY, verb transitive

1. To cover or manure with clay

2. To purify and whiten with clay as sugar.

CLAY-COLD, adjective Cold as clay or earth; lifeless.

CLAYED, participle passive

1. Covered or manured with clay.

2. Purified and whitened with clay; as clayed sugar.

CLAYES, noun plural In fortification, wattles or hurdles made with stakes interwoven with osiers, to cover lodgments.

CLAYEY, adjective Consisting of clay; abounding with clay; partaking of clay; like clay.

CLAY-GROUND, noun Ground consisting of clay, or abounding with it.

CLAYISH, adjective Partaking of the nature of clay, or containing particles of it.

CLAY-LAND, SOIL, noun Land consisting of clay, or abounding with it.

CLAY-MARL, noun A whitish, smooth, chalky clay.

CLAY-PIT, noun A pit where clay is dug.

CLAY-SLATE, noun A pit where clay is dug.

CLAY-STONE, noun A mineral, the thonstein of Werner, and indurated clay of Kirwan. It resembles compact limestone or calcarious marl. Its texture is porous, compact or slaty. Its color is gray, often tinged with yellow or blue; also rose or pale red, or brownish red, and sometimes greenish.