Job 33:13

33:13 Why do you contend against him,

that he does not answer all a person’s ¹  words?

Isaiah 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ² 

one who is like a mere ³  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ⁴ 

“What in the world ⁵  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ⁶ 

Jeremiah 18:6

18:6 “I, the Lord, say: ⁷  ‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? ⁸  In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’

Matthew 11:26

11:26 Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. ⁹ 

Matthew 20:15

20:15 Am I not ¹⁰  permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹¹ 

Romans 9:18-20

9:18 So then, ¹²  God ¹³  has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. ¹⁴ 

9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being ¹⁵  – to talk back to God? ¹⁶  Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” ¹⁷ 

Romans 11:34

11:34 For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor? ¹⁸ 

¹ tc The MT has “all his words.” This must refer to “man” in the previous verse. But many wish to change it to “my words,” since it would be summarizing Job’s complaint to God.

² tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

³ tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

⁴ tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”

⁵ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

⁶ 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.”

⁷ 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.

⁸ 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.

⁹ tn Grk “for (to do) thus was well-pleasing before you,” BDAG 325 s.v. ἔμπροσθεν 1.b.δ; speaking of something taking place “before” God is a reverential way of avoiding direct connection of the action to him.

¹⁰ tc ‡ Before οὐκ (ouk, “[am I] not”) a number of significant witnesses read ἤ (h, “or”; e.g., א C W 085 Ë^1,13 33 and most others). Although in later Greek the οι in σοι (oi in soi) – the last word of v. 14 – would have been pronounced like ἤ, since ἤ is lacking in early mss (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since mss were probably copied predominantly by sight rather than by sound, even into the later centuries, the omission of ἤ cannot be accounted for as easily. Thus the shorter reading is most likely original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

¹¹ tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

¹² sn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

¹³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Grk “So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “O man.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “On the contrary, O man, who are you to talk back to God?”

¹⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9.

¹⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.