<p class="poetry">I sent him<n id="1" /> against a godless<n id="2" /> nation,p> <p class="poetry">I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">to take plunder and to carry away loot,p> <p class="poetry">to trample them down<n id="4" /> like dirt in the streets.p>

<p class="poetry">Your thinking is perverse!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Should the potter be regarded as clay?<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Should the thing made say<n id="3" /> about its maker, &#8220;He didn&#8217;t make me&#8221;?p> <p class="poetry">Or should the pottery say about the potter, &#8220;He doesn&#8217;t understand&#8221;?p>

<p class="poetry">I have stirred up one out of the north<n id="1" /> and he advances,p> <p class="poetry">one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He steps on<n id="3" /> rulers as if they were clay,p> <p class="poetry">like a potter treading the clay.p>

<t /><p class="poetry">One who argues with his creator is in grave danger,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">one who is like a mere<n id="2" /> shard among the other shards on the ground!p> <p class="poetry">The clay should not say to the potter,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;What in the world<n id="4" /> are you doing?p> <p class="poetry">Your work lacks skill!&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

Now and then<n id="1" /> there would be something wrong<n id="2" /> with the pot he was molding from the clay<n id="3" /> with his hands. So he would rework<n id="4" /> the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit.<n id="5" />p>

And the people stayed up<n id="1" /> all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers,<n id="2" /> and they spread them out<n id="3" /> for themselves all around the camp.

&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="1" /> &#8216;O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay?<n id="2" /> In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter&#8217;s hand.&#8217;