Discovery BoxIsaiah 45:9 
Context45:9 One who argues with his creator is in grave danger, 1
one who is like a mere 2 shard among the other shards on the ground!
The clay should not say to the potter, 3
“What in the world 4 are you doing?
Your work lacks skill!” 5
Isaiah 58:13
Context58:13 You must 6 observe the Sabbath 7
rather than doing anything you please on my holy day. 8
You must look forward to the Sabbath 9
and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect. 10
You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities,
and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals. 11
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”
2 tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.
3 tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”
4 tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.
5 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.”
6 tn Lit., “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 13-14 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in v. 13), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 14.
7 tn Heb “if you turn from the Sabbath your feet.”
8 tn Heb “[from] doing your desires on my holy day.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa supplies the preposition מִן (min) on “doing.”
9 tn Heb “and call the Sabbath a pleasure”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “a delight.”
10 tn Heb “and [call] the holy [day] of the Lord honored.” On קָדוֹשׁ (qadosh, “holy”) as indicating a time period, see BDB 872 s.v. 2.e (cf. also Neh 8:9-11).
11 tn Heb “and you honor it [by refraining] from accomplishing your ways, from finding your desire and speaking a word.” It is unlikely that the last phrase (“speaking a word”) is a prohibition against talking on the Sabbath; instead it probably refers to making transactions or plans (see Hos 10:4). Some see here a reference to idle talk (cf. 2 Sam 19:30).
