Discovery BoxIsaiah 45:10 
Context45:10 Danger awaits one who says 1 to his father,
“What in the world 2 are you fathering?”
and to his mother,
“What in the world are you bringing forth?” 3
Isaiah 30:6
Context30:6 This is a message 4 about the animals in the Negev:
Through a land of distress and danger,
inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, 5
by snakes and darting adders, 6
they transport 7 their wealth on the backs of donkeys,
their riches on the humps of camels,
to a nation that cannot help them. 8
Isaiah 45:9
Context45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, 9
one who is like a mere 10 shard among the other shards on the ground!
The clay should not say to the potter, 11
“What in the world 12 are you doing?
Your work lacks skill!” 13
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] one who says” (NASB and NIV both similar); NCV “How terrible it will be.”
2 tn See the note at v. 9. This phrase occurs a second time later in this verse.
3 sn Verses 9-10 may allude to the exiles’ criticism that the Lord does not appear to know what he is doing.
4 tn Traditionally, “burden” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “oracle.”
5 tc Heb “[a land of] a lioness and a lion, from them.” Some emend מֵהֶם (mehem, “from them”) to מֵהֵם (mehem), an otherwise unattested Hiphil participle from הָמַם (hamam, “move noisily”). Perhaps it would be better to take the initial mem (מ) as enclitic and emend the form to הֹמֶה (homeh), a Qal active participle from הָמָה (hamah, “to make a noise”); cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:542, n. 9.
6 tn Heb “flying fiery one.” See the note at 14:29.
7 tn Or “carry” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
8 sn This verse describes messengers from Judah transporting wealth to Egypt in order to buy Pharaoh’s protection through a treaty.
9 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”
10 tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.
11 tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”
12 tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.
13 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.”
