I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and (A)create calamity;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

(B)“Shower, O heavens, from above,
    and (C)let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
    let the earth cause them both to sprout;
    I the Lord have created it.

(D)“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
    a pot among earthen pots!
(E)Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
    or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
    or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

11 Thus says (F)the Lord,
    the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
(G)“Ask me of things to come;
    will you command me (H)concerning my children and (I)the work of my hands?[a]
12 (J)I made the earth
    and created man on it;
it was my hands (K)that stretched out the heavens,
    and (L)I commanded all their host.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 45:11 A slight emendation yields will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands?

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