CLAY — wet, workable potter's clay, and by extension mud or mortar (it is the stuff of the Egyptian brick-quota in Exodus 1:14). ⚠ The whole force of the image in Jeremiah 18 depends on one physical fact about chomer that a reader today may not carry: WET clay can be collapsed and thrown again as often as you like, while FIRED clay can never be reworked, only smashed. That is why chapter 18's marred vessel is reshaped on the wheel and chapter 19's baked flask is broken 'so that it can never be mended again' (19:11) — two sign-acts, back to back, and the difference between them is the kiln. Isaiah turns the same noun into a prayer: 'we are the chomer, and you our potter' (64:8). Job grants the premise from the other side: 'I too was nipped off from the chomer' (33:6). → first discussed at Jer 18:4