Discovery BoxIsaiah 29:13 
Context29:13 The sovereign master 1 says,
“These people say they are loyal to me; 2
they say wonderful things about me, 3
but they are not really loyal to me. 4
Their worship consists of
nothing but man-made ritual. 5
Isaiah 29:16
Context29:16 Your thinking is perverse! 6
Should the potter be regarded as clay? 7
Should the thing made say 8 about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?
Isaiah 40:27
Context40:27 Why do you say, Jacob,
Why do you say, Israel,
“The Lord is not aware of what is happening to me, 9
My God is not concerned with my vindication”? 10
Isaiah 56:3
Context56:3 No foreigner who becomes a follower of 11 the Lord should say,
‘The Lord will certainly 12 exclude me from his people.’
The eunuch should not say,
‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”
1 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).
2 tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”
3 tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”
4 tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.
5 tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”
6 tn Heb “your overturning.” The predicate is suppressed in this exclamation. The idea is, “O your perversity! How great it is!” See GKC 470 §147.c. The people “overturn” all logic by thinking their authority supersedes God’s.
7 tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is “of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (’im), see BDB 50 s.v.
8 tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”
9 tn Heb “my way is hidden from the Lord” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
10 tn Heb “and from my God my justice passes away”; NRSV “my right is disregarded by my God.”
11 tn Heb “who attaches himself to.”
12 tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
