Isaiah 30:13-14

30:13 So this sin will become your downfall.

You will be like a high wall

that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse;

it crumbles suddenly, in a flash. ¹ 

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

so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ² 

Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ³ 

to scoop a hot coal from a fire ⁴ 

or to skim off water from a cistern.” ⁵ 

[30:13]  ¹ tn The verse reads literally, “So this sin will become for you like a breach ready to fall, bulging on a high wall, the breaking of which comes suddenly, in a flash.” Their sin produces guilt and will result in judgment. Like a wall that collapses their fall will be swift and sudden.

[30:14]  ² 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]  ³ tn The words “large enough” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “to remove fire from the place of kindling.”

[30:14]  ⁵ tn On the meaning of גֶבֶא (geveh, “cistern”) see HALOT 170 s.v.