<p class="poetry">You will break them<n id="1" /> with an iron scepter;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">you will smash them like a potter&#8217;s jar!&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">the people whom I formed for myself,p> <p class="poetry">so they might praise me.&#8221;<n id="1" />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>

<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>

<p class="poetry">What good<n id="1" /> is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it?<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles?<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Why would its creator place his trust in it<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">and make<n id="5" /> such mute, worthless things?p>

<p class="poetry">He is the one who forms every human heart,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and takes note of all their actions.p>

<p class="poetry">Cruel rulers<n id="1" /> are not your allies,p> <p class="poetry">those who make oppressive laws.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">The sea is his, for he made it.p> <p class="poetry">His hands formed the dry land.p>

<p class="poetry">The ships travel there,p> <p class="poetry">and over here swims the whale<n id="1" /> you made to play in it.p>

<p class="poetry">everyone who belongs to me,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">whom I created for my glory,p> <p class="poetry">whom I formed &#8211; yes, whom I made!p>

<p class="poetry">Who forms a god and casts an idolp> <p class="poetry">that will prove worthless?<n id="1" />p>

&#8220;Go down at once<n id="1" /> to the potter&#8217;s house. I will speak to you further there.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> God planted an orchard<n id="1" /> in the east,<n id="2" /> in Eden;<n id="3" /> and there he placed the man he had formed.<n id="4" />

brought bedding, basins, and pottery utensils. They also brought food for David and all who were with him, including wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils,<n id="1" />

They were the potters who lived in Netaim and Gederah; they lived there and worked for the king.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">You set up all the boundaries<n id="1" /> of the earth;p> <p class="poetry">you created the cycle of summer and winter.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?p> <p class="poetry">Does the one who forms the human eye not see?<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">All the days ordained for mep> <p class="poetry">were recorded in your scrollp> <p class="poetry">before one of them came into existence.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Yet,<n id="1" /> <sc>Lordsc>, you are our father.p> <p class="poetry">We are the clay, and you are our potter;p> <p class="poetry">we are all the product of your labor.<n id="2" />p>