Yesaya 29:16

29:16 Your thinking is perverse! ¹ 

Should the potter be regarded as clay? ² 

Should the thing made say ³  about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?

Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

Yesaya 44:15

44:15 A man uses it to make a fire; ⁴ 

he takes some of it and warms himself.

Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.

Then he makes a god and worships it;

he makes an idol and bows down to it. ⁵ 

Yesaya 44:23

44:23 Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; ⁶ 

shout out, you subterranean regions ⁷  of the earth.

O mountains, give a joyful shout;

you too, O forest and all your trees! ⁸ 

For the Lord protects ⁹  Jacob;

he reveals his splendor through Israel. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ¹¹ 

one who is like a mere ¹²  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ¹³ 

“What in the world ¹⁴  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ¹⁶ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ¹⁷ 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Yesaya 48:11

48:11 For my sake alone ¹⁸  I will act,

for how can I allow my name to be defiled? ¹⁹ 

I will not share my glory with anyone else! ²⁰ 

[29:16]  ¹ tn Heb “your overturning.” The predicate is suppressed in this exclamation. The idea is, “O your perversity! How great it is!” See GKC 470 §147.c. The people “overturn” all logic by thinking their authority supersedes God’s.

[29:16]  ² tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (’im), see BDB 50 s.v.

[29:16]  ³ tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”

[44:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”

[44:15]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps, “them.”

[44:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “acts”; NASB, NRSV “has done it”; NLT “has done this wondrous thing.”

[44:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “lower regions.” This refers to Sheol and forms a merism with “sky” in the previous line. See Pss 63:9; 71:20.

[44:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “O forest and all the trees in it”; NASB, NRSV “and every tree in it.”

[44:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “redeems.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:23]  ¹⁰ tn That is, by delivering Israel. Cf. NCV “showed his glory when he saved Israel”; TEV “has shown his greatness by saving his people Israel.”

[45:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

[45:9]  ¹² tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[45:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”

[45:9]  ¹⁴ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

[45:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “your work, there are no hands for it,” i.e., “your work looks like something made by a person who has no hands.”

[45:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ¹⁷ tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.

[48:11]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text repeats לְמַעֲנִי (lÿma’ani, “for my sake”) for emphasis.

[48:11]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “for how can it be defiled?” The subject of the verb is probably “name” (v. 9).

[48:11]  ²⁰ sn See 42:8.