14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave
like a shoot that is thrown away. 1
You lie among 2 the slain,
among those who have been slashed by the sword,
among those headed for 3 the stones of the pit, 4
as if you were a mangled corpse. 5
45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, 6
one who is like a mere 7 shard among the other shards on the ground!
The clay should not say to the potter, 8
“What in the world 9 are you doing?
Your work lacks skill!” 10
1 tn Heb “like a shoot that is abhorred.” The simile seems a bit odd; apparently it refers to a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away. Some prefer to emend נֵצֶר (netser, “shoot”); some propose נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”). In this case one might paraphrase: “like a horrible-looking fetus that is delivered when a woman miscarries.”
2 tn Heb “are clothed with.”
3 tn Heb “those going down to.”
4 tn בּוֹר (bor) literally means “cistern”; cisterns were constructed from stones. On the metaphorical use of “cistern” for the underworld, see the note at v. 15.
5 tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.
6 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”
7 tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.
8 tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”
9 tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.
10 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.”