Isaiah 29:16

Isa 29:16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

Ver. 16. Surely your turning of things upside down.] Heb., Invertere vestrum. Your denying the divine providence and omniscience, whereby ye go about to pervert the whole course of nature, and to put all into a confusion.

Shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay.] Shall be confuted by a very familiar comparison. Calvin readeth it thus: "Shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay," i.e., is as easily effected as he maketh a vessel at his pleasure.

For shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not?] It should say so upon the matter, by denying his knowledge of it. The watchmaker knoweth every pin and wheel in it; so the heartmaker knoweth every turning and winding in it, were they more than they are.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29:16 Potter . . . clay: The Lord’s sovereignty is beyond challenge. Scripture does not discourage asking God hard questions, but there is no place for resistance to God’s will (see 10:15; 45:9; 64:8; Rom 9:20). • He didn’t make me: Such claims against God demonstrate a total unwillingness to recognize God’s intimate involvement with every aspect of a person’s life.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For all your craft saith the Lord, you cannot be able to escape mine hands no more than the clay, that is in the potter’s hands, hath power to deliver itself.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Rather, "Ah! your perverseness! just as if the potter should be esteemed as the clay!" [MAURER]. Or, "Ye invert (turn upside down) the order of things, putting yourselves instead of God," and vice versa, just as if the potter should be esteemed as the clay [HORSLEY], (Isa 45:9; Isa 64:8).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(16) Surely your turning of things upside down.—The words are better taken as exclamatory, O your perversity! Isaiah was indignant at that habit of always taking things at their wrong end, and looking on them from the wrong side.

Shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay . . .—Better, Shall the potter be counted as the clay? The Authorised version is scarcely intelligible. Taken as a question, the words bring out the character of the perversity, the upside-downness, of which the prophet speaks. The men whom he condemns were inverting the relations of the Creator and the creature, the potter and the clay, acting practically as atheists, denying that there was a Divine order of which they formed a part.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. Shall the creature attempt to outwit the Creator?

Surely your turning … clay] Render as R.V. marg.: O your perversity! Shall the potter be counted as clay? “Is there no difference between maker and thing made?” On the image of the clay and the potter, cf. ch. Isa_45:9, Isa_64:8; Jer_18:6; Rom_9:21 ff.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Surely your turning of things upside down,.... Revolving things in their minds, throwing them into different shapes, forming various schemes, and inverting the order of things by their deep counsels, and seeking to hide things from the Lord: or, "O the perverseness of you" (z); in imagining and saying that no eye saw, nor anyone knew, what they did, not the Lord himself. So the Vulgate Latin version, "this is your perverse thought"; namely, what is before related. The Targum is,

"do you seek to pervert your works?''

Our version joins it with what follows; though a stop should be made here, because of the accent:

shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: their perverse counsels and designs shall be made of no more account with God, and be as easily turned about and brought to nought, as the clay can be formed, and shaped, and marred by the potter, at his pleasure: "if" or "surely as the potter's clay shall it be esteemed", as the words may be rendered; or it may refer to their persons, as well as their counsels. So the Septuagint version, "shall ye not be reckoned as the potter's clay?" ye shall. To which agrees the Targum,

"behold, as the clay in the hand of the potter, so are ye accounted before me;''

who could do with them just as seemed good in his sight. De Dieu renders them, "shall the potter be reckoned as the clay?" Such was the stupidity and perverseness of the Jews, in endeavouring to hide their counsels from the Lord, and in fancying that he did not see and know them, that they thought God was like themselves; which is all one as if the potter was reckoned as the clay, for they were the clay, and God the potter. The Vulgate Latin version is, "as if the clay could think against the potter"; contrive schemes to counterwork him; which, to imagine, was not more stupid, than to think they could do anything against the Lord:

for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? to say that God does not know what is done by his creatures, is in effect to say that he did not make them; for he that made them must needs know their actions, and even the very thoughts of their hearts; as he that makes a watch knows all that is in it, and the motions of it:

or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? or judgment, did not know how to make it as it should be. So the Septuagint version, "thou hast not made me wisely"; or he did not understand the work itself, the make and fashion of it. So the Targum,

"thou does not understand me.''

This might as well be said, as for a creature to pretend that God does not know what and where he is, or what he is doing.

(z) So some in Gataker; "subversio vestra", Pagninus, Montanus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Surely your turning of things upside down - Your perversion of all things. They had no just views of truth. They deemed mere formality to be all that was required. They attempted to conceal their plans even from Yahweh; and everything in the opinions and practice of the nation had become perverted and erroneous. There has been much diversity in rendering this phrase. Luther renders it, ‘O how perverse ye are.’ Lowth renders it,

‘Perverse as ye are! shall the potter be esteemed as the clay?’

Rosenmuller also accords with this interpretation, and renders it, ‘O your perversity,’ etc. The sense of the passage seems to be this: ‘Your “changing of things” is just as absurd as it would be for the thing formed to say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? It is as absurd for you to find fault with the government of God as it would be for the clay to complain of want of skill in the potter. You complain of God’s laws, and worship Him according to the commandments of people. You complain of his requirements, and offer to him the service of the mouth and the lip, and witchold the heart. You suppose that God does not see you, and do your deeds in darkness. All this supposes that God is destitute of wisdom, and cannot see what is done, and it is just as absurd as it would be in the clay to complain that the potter who fashions it has no understanding.’

Shall be esteemed ... - The “literal” translation of this passage would be, ‘Your perverseness is as if the potter should be esteemed as the clay;’ that is, as if he was no more qualified to form anything than the clay itself.

For shall the work ... - This passage is quoted by the apostle Paul Rom 9:20-21 to show the right which God has to do with his creatures as shall seem good in his sight, and the impropriety of complaining of his distinguishing mercy in choosing to life those whom he pleases. The sense of the passage is, that it would be absurd for that which is made to complain of the maker as having no intelligence, and no right to make it as he does. It would be absurd in the piece of pottery to complain of the potter as if he had no skill; and it is equally absurd in a man to complain of God, or to regard him as destitute of wisdom.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Not. So it is in vain to think that your hypocrisy or excuses will deceive God, chap. xxviii. 15. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Your turning of things upside down; all your subtle devices, by which you turn yourselves into all shapes; and turn your thoughts hither and thither, and pervert the order which God hath appointed.

Shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay; it is no more to me than the clay is to the potter, who can not only discern it thoroughly, but alter and dispose it as he seeth fit.

Shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not, & c.? and no less absurd and ridiculous is your conceit, that I, your Maker and supreme Governor, cannot discover and control all your artifices at my pleasure.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

16. Your turning… things upside down — Or, “O such perversion!” Fools! to suppose God knows no more than to put your profane, formal pretension of piety on a par with genuine religion; to suppose him easily deluded by you. This means the proverb-like comparison or illustration in frequent use among the Jews. See Isa_45:9; Isa_64:8; Jer_18:5; Jer_18:7; Rom_9:20.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter"s clay; rather, O for your perverseness! Shall the potter be reckoned as clay? They were so perverse and wrong-headed that they inverted the relation in which they stood to God and God to them. God was to be passive, or merely give opportunities of action, and they were to mould their own plans and carve out their own destinies. For shall the work say, etc.? rather, for the work saith. Taking their destinies into their own hands was equivalent to saying that they were their own masters, which they could not be if God made them. Shall the thing framed say, etc.? rather, yea, the thing formed hath said. To refuse to take counsel of God, and direct the national policy by the light of their own reason, was to tax God with having no understanding.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Surely - All your subtle devices, by which you turn yourselves into all shapes. As clay - It is no more to me, than the clay is to the potter, who can alter and dispose it as he sees fit.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

“Your perversion! Is the potter to be reckoned as the clay that the thing made should say of its maker, he made me not, and the thing formed say of its former, he does not understand?” The attempt to hide anything from God implies that He has not a perfect knowledge of His creatures, which is practically to reduce the maker and the thing made to a level. With this inversion or perversion of the natural relation between God and man, the Prophet charges them in one word. Most of the recent writers are agreed in construing the first word as an exclamation, ‘oh your perverseness!’ (i.e., how perverse you are!) in which sense it had long before been paraphrased by Luther. Both the derivation of the word, however, and the context here seem to demand the sense perversion rather than perverseness. The verse seems intended not so much to rebuke their perverse disposition, as to show that by their conduct they subverted the distinction between creature and creator, or placed them in a preposterous relation to each other. Thus understood, the word may be thus paraphrased: (this is) your (own) perversion (of the truth, or of the true relation between God and man).

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

You turn things upside down

This is an idiom that means to distort what is true. AT: "You make things opposite of the way they should be" or "You distort the truth" (See: Idiom)

Should the potter be considered like clay, so that the thing that is made should say about him who made it ... "He does not understand"?

Yahweh who created humans is spoken of as if he were a potter and humans were the clay. This metaphor emphasizes that it is foolish for humans to reject or criticize the one who created them. AT: "Should you consider me, your maker, to be like the clay rather than the potter? It is as if a potter created something, and that thing said about the potter, 'He did not make me,' or 'He does not understand.'" (See: Metaphor)

Should the potter be considered like clay ... "He does not understand"?

This question is used to scold the people of Jerusalem. AT: "Obviously, the potter should not be considered like clay ... 'He does not understand.'" (See: Rhetorical Question)

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Shall your perversion be regarded like the potter’s clay (Heb. הָפְכְּכֶם) Your perversions. Do you know this, that it is like the potter’s clay? Just as the clay cannot say of its maker, “He did not make me,” so you cannot say that I do not understand your deeds.

Shall...like the potter’s clay, etc. This is an expression of a question, but there are questions to be answered in the affirmative.

of him who made it (לְעֹשֵׂהוּ, lit. to him who made it.) Like עַל עֹשֵׂהוּ. Comp. (Ex. 14:3) “And Pharaoh shall say of the children of Israel (וְלִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל).” (Jud. 9:54) “Lest they say of me (לִי), ‘A woman killed him.’”

and the impulse say concerning the One Who formed it, “He does not understand”? Did he say concerning the One Who formed it, “He does not understand what is in my impulse”? Did He not build the hidden recesses, the inner chambers, and the thoughts?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

הפככם You are going from the truth.

אם כחמר היוצר יחשב Shall man be esteemed as the potter’s clay.

ויצר And the thing framed. It is derived from יצר to form. ליצרו Of him that framed it. Comp. לי of me (Gen. 20:13)

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.