Isaiah 10:15

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ¹ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

Isaiah 29:16

29:16 Your thinking is perverse! ² 

Should the potter be regarded as clay? ³ 

Should the thing made say ⁴  about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?

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

Jeremiah 18:6

18:6 “I, the Lord, say: ⁵  ‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? ⁶  In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’

Romans 9:20-21

9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ⁷  – to talk back to God? ⁸  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ⁹  9:21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay ¹⁰  one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

² 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.

³ tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (’im), see BDB 50 s.v.

⁴ tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”

⁵ tn This phrase (literally “Oracle of the Lord”) has been handled this way on several occasions when it occurs within first person addresses where the Lord is the speaker. See, e.g., 16:16; 17:24.

⁶ tn The words “deals with the clay” are not in the text. They are part of an elliptical comparison and are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

⁷ tn Grk “O man.”

⁸ tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.

¹⁰ tn Grk “Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump.”

¹¹ tn Grk “one vessel for honor and another for dishonor.”