Isaiah 10:6
Context10:6 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.
Isaiah 29:16
Context29:16 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”?
Isaiah 41:25
Context41:25 I have stirred up one out of the north 8 and he advances,
one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. 9
He steps on 10 rulers as if they were clay,
like a potter treading the clay.
Isaiah 45:9
Context45:9 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


[10:6] 1 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
[10:6] 2 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
[10:6] 3 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
[10:6] 4 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
[29:16] 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.
[29:16] 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.
[29:16] 7 tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”
[41:25] 9 sn That is, Cyrus the Persian. See the note at v. 2.
[41:25] 10 tn Heb “[one] from the rising of the sun [who] calls in my name.”
[41:25] 11 tn The Hebrew text has וְיָבֹא (vÿyavo’, “and he comes”), but this is likely a corruption of an original וַיָּבָס (vayyavas), from בּוּס (bus, “step on”).
[45:9] 13 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”
[45:9] 14 tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.
[45:9] 15 tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”
[45:9] 16 tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.
[45:9] 17 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.”