Isaiah 16:11

16:11 So my heart constantly sighs for Moab, like the strumming of a harp, ¹ 

my inner being sighs ²  for Kir Hareseth. ³ 

Isaiah 30:14

30:14 It shatters in pieces like a clay jar,

so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ⁴ 

Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ⁵ 

to scoop a hot coal from a fire ⁶ 

or to skim off water from a cistern.” ⁷ 

Isaiah 45:9

The Lord Gives a Warning

45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, ⁸ 

one who is like a mere ⁹  shard among the other shards on the ground!

The clay should not say to the potter, ¹⁰ 

“What in the world ¹¹  are you doing?

Your work lacks skill!” ¹² 

[16:11]  ¹ tn Heb “so my intestines sigh for Moab like a harp.” The word מֵעַי (me’ay, “intestines”) is used here of the seat of the emotions. English idiom requires the word “heart.” The point of the comparison to a harp is not entirely clear. Perhaps his sighs of mourning resemble a harp in sound, or his constant sighing is like the repetitive strumming of a harp.

[16:11]  ² tn The verb is supplied in the translation; “sighs” in the preceding line does double duty in the parallel structure.

[16:11]  ³ tn Heb “Kir Heres” (so ASV, NRSV, TEV, CEV), a variant name for “Kir Hareseth” (see v. 7).

[30:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “Its shattering is like the shattering of a jug of [i.e., “made by”] potters, [so] shattered one cannot save [any of it].”

[30:14]  ⁵ tn The words “large enough” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “to remove fire from the place of kindling.”

[30:14]  ⁷ tn On the meaning of גֶבֶא (geveh, “cistern”) see HALOT 170 s.v.

[45:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”

[45:9]  ⁸ tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.

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

[45:9]  ¹⁰ tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.

[45:9]  ¹¹ 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.”