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15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead,[a]
who do their work in secret and boast,[b]
“Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?”[c]

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 29:15 tn Heb “Woe [to] those who deeply hide counsel from the Lord.” This probably alludes to political alliances made without seeking the Lord’s guidance. See 30:1-2 and 31:1.
  2. Isaiah 29:15 tn Heb “and their works are in darkness, and they say.”
  3. Isaiah 29:15 tn The rhetorical questions suggest the answer: “No one.” They are confident that their deeds are hidden from others, including God.

16 Your thinking is perverse![a]
Should the potter be regarded as clay?[b]
Should the thing made say[c] about its maker, “He didn’t make me”?
Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”?

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 29:16 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.
  2. Isaiah 29:16 tn The expected answer to this rhetorical question is: “Of course not.” On the interrogative use of אִם (ʾim), see BDB 50 s.v.
  3. Isaiah 29:16 tn Heb “that the thing made should say.”

The Lord Gives a Warning

One who argues with his Creator is in grave danger,[a]
one who is like a mere[b] shard among the other shards on the ground!
The clay should not say to the potter,[c]
“What in the world[d] are you doing?
Your work lacks skill!”[e]

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 45:9 tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who argues with the one who formed him.”
  2. Isaiah 45:9 tn The words “one who is like a mere” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and clarification.
  3. Isaiah 45:9 tn Heb “Should the clay say to the one who forms it,…?” The rhetorical question anticipates a reply, “Of course not!”
  4. Isaiah 45:9 tn The words “in the world” are supplied in the translation to approximate in English idiom the force of the sarcastic question.
  5. Isaiah 45:9 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.”