30:14 It shatters in pieces like a clay jar,
so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. 1
Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough 2
to scoop a hot coal from a fire 3
or to skim off water from a cistern.” 4
38:12 My dwelling place 5 is removed and taken away 6 from me
like a shepherd’s tent.
I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth; 7
from the loom he cuts me off. 8
You turn day into night and end my life. 9
1 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].”
2 tn The words “large enough” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
3 tn Heb “to remove fire from the place of kindling.”
4 tn On the meaning of גֶבֶא (geveh, “cistern”) see HALOT 170 s.v.
5 tn According to HALOT 217 s.v. דּוֹר this noun is a hapax legomenon meaning “dwelling place,” derived from a verbal root meaning “live” (see Ps 84:10). For an interpretation that understands the form as the well-attested noun meaning “generation,” see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:679, n. 4.
6 tn The verb form appears to be a Niphal from גָּלָה (galah), which normally means “uncovered, revealed” in the Niphal. Because of the following reference to a shepherd’s tent, some prefer to emend the form to וְנָגַל, a Niphal from גָלָל (galal, “roll”) and translate “is rolled [or “folded”] up.”
7 tn Heb “I rolled up, like a weaver, my life” (so ASV).
8 sn For a discussion of the imagery employed here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:684.
9 tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”