10:6 I sent him 1 against a godless 2 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 3
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 4 like dirt in the streets.
29:16 Your thinking is perverse! 5
Should the potter be regarded as clay? 6
Should the thing made say 7 about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?
1 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
2 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
3 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
4 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
5 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.
6 tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (’im), see BDB 50 s.v.
7 tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”