Isaiah 43:7

43:7 everyone who belongs to me, ¹ 

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed – yes, whom I made!

Isaiah 44:21

44:21 Remember these things, O Jacob,

O Israel, for you are my servant.

I formed you to be my servant;

O Israel, I will not forget you! ² 

Isaiah 44:24

The Lord Empowers Cyrus

44:24 This is what the Lord, your protector, ³  says,

the one who formed you in the womb:

“I am the Lord, who made everything,

who alone stretched out the sky,

who fashioned the earth all by myself, ⁴ 

Job 10:8-9

Contradictions in God’s Dealings

10:8 “Your hands have shaped ⁵  me and made me,

but ⁶  now you destroy me completely. ⁷ 

10:9 Remember that you have made me as with ⁸  the clay;

will ⁹  you return me to dust?

Psalms 100:3

100:3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us and we belong to him; ¹⁰ 

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Psalms 119:73

י (Yod)

119:73 Your hands made me and formed me. ¹¹ 

Give me understanding so that I might learn ¹²  your commands.

Psalms 138:8

138:8 The Lord avenges me. ¹³ 

O Lord, your loyal love endures.

Do not abandon those whom you have made! ¹⁴ 

Ephesians 2:10

2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ¹⁵ 

[43:7]  ¹ tn Heb “everyone who is called by my name” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[44:21]  ² tc The verb in the Hebrew text is a Niphal imperfect with a pronominal suffix. Although the Niphal ordinarily has the passive sense, it can have a reflexive nuance as well (see above translation). Some have suggested an emendation to a Qal form: “Do not forget me” (all the ancient versions, NEB, REB; see GKC 369 §117.x). “Do not forget me” would make a good parallel with “remember these things” in the first line. Since the MT is the harder reading and fits with Israel’s complaint that God had forgotten her (Isa 40:27), the MT reading should be retained (NASB, NKJV, NRSV, ESV). The passive has been rendered as an active in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style (so also NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).

[44:24]  ³ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[44:24]  ⁴ tn The consonantal text (Kethib) has “Who [was] with me?” The marginal reading (Qere) is “from with me,” i.e., “by myself.” See BDB 87 s.v. II אֵת 4.c.

[10:8]  ⁵ tn The root עָצַב (’atsav) is linked by some to an Arabic word meaning “to cut out, hew.” The derived word עֲצַבִּים (’atsabbim) means “idols.” Whatever the precise meaning, the idea is that God formed or gave shape to mankind in creation.

[10:8]  ⁶ tn The verb in this part is a preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive. However, here it has merely an external connection with the preceding perfects, so that in reality it presents an antithesis (see GKC 327 §111.e).

[10:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “together round about and you destroy me.” The second half of this verse is very difficult. Most commentators follow the LXX and connect the first two words with the second colon as the MT accents indicate (NJPS, “then destroyed every part of me”), rather than with the first colon (“and made me complete,” J. E. Hartley, Job [NICOT], 185). Instead of “together” some read “after.” Others see in סָבִיב (saviv) not so much an adjectival use but a verbal or adverbial use: “you turn and destroy” or “you destroy utterly (all around).” This makes more sense than “turn.” In addition, the verb form in the line is the preterite with vav consecutive; this may be another example of the transposition of the copula (see 4:6). For yet another option (“You have engulfed me about altogether”), see R. Fuller, “Exodus 21:22: The Miscarriage Interpretation and the Personhood of the Fetus,” JETS 37 (1994): 178.

[10:9]  ⁸ tn The preposition “like” creates a small tension here. So some ignore the preposition and read “clay” as an adverbial accusative of the material (GKC 371 §117.hh but cf. 379 §119.i with reference to beth essentiae: “as it were, by clay”). The NIV gets around the problem with a different meaning for the verb: “you molded me like clay.” Some suggest the meaning was “as [with] clay” (in the same manner that we have “as [in] the day of Midian” [Isa 9:4]).

[10:9]  ⁹ tn The text has a conjunction: “and to dust….”

[100:3]  ¹⁰ tn The present translation (like most modern translations) follows the Qere (marginal reading), which reads literally, “and to him [are] we.” The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and not we.” The suffixed preposition לו (“to him”) was confused aurally with the negative particle לא because the two sound identical.

[119:73]  ¹¹ tn Heb “made me and established me.” The two verbs also appear together in Deut 32:6, where God, compared to a father, is said to have “made and established” Israel.

[119:73]  ¹² tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[138:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “avenges on my behalf.” For the meaning “to avenge” for the verb גָּמַר (gamar), see HALOT 197-98 s.v. גמר.

[138:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the works of your hands.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular, “work of your hands.”

[2:10]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “so that we might walk in them” (or “by them”).