Discovery BoxIsaiah 30:13-14 
Context30:13 So this sin will become your downfall.
You will be like a high wall
that bulges and cracks and is ready to collapse;
it crumbles suddenly, in a flash. 1
30:14 It shatters in pieces like a clay jar,
so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. 2
Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough 3
to scoop a hot coal from a fire 4
or to skim off water from a cistern.” 5
1 tn The verse reads literally, “So this sin will become for you like a breach ready to fall, bulging on a high wall, the breaking of which comes suddenly, in a flash.” Their sin produces guilt and will result in judgment. Like a wall that collapses their fall will be swift and sudden.
2 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].”
3 tn The words “large enough” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
4 tn Heb “to remove fire from the place of kindling.”
5 tn On the meaning of גֶבֶא (geveh, “cistern”) see HALOT 170 s.v.
