⁶ He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay^(A) in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand,^(B) Israel.

²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(A) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(B) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[a](C) 21} Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?^(D)

¹⁵ Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’^(A)

⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.