Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 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?
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 Gods 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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 potters 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. Rather, “Ah! yourperverseness! just as if the potter should be esteemed as the clay!”[MAURER]. Or, “Yeinvert (turn upside down) the order of things, putting yourselvesinstead of God,” and vice versa, just as if the potter should beesteemed as the clay [HORSLEY],(Isa 45:9; Isa 64:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16. Is your turning reckoned like potter’s clay! There are various ways of explaining this verse, and, indeed, there is some difficulty on account of the two particles, אם (ĭ m) and כי ( kī). אם (ĭ m) is often used in putting a question, and sometimes in making an affirmation; and therefore some translate it truly. The word הפך ( hāphăch) is considered by some to mean “turning upside down,” (276) as if he had said, “Shall your turning upside down be reckoned like clay?” Others render it “turning,” that is, the purposes which are formed in the heart. But the most generally received rendering is, “turning upside down” or “destruction.” As if he had said, “I would care no more about destroying you, than the potter would care about turning the clay; for you are like clay, because I have created you with my hand.”
But as the Prophet appears to contrast those two particles אם (ĭ m) and כי ( kī), I am more inclined to a different opinion, though I do not object to the former exposition, which contains a doctrine in other respects useful. My view of it therefore is this, “Shall your turning, that is, the purposes which you ponder in your heart, be like potter’s clay? Is it not as if the vessel said to the potter, Thou hast not formed me? Your pride is astonishing; for you act as if you had created yourselves, and as if you had everything in your own power. I had a right to appoint whatever I thought fit. When you dare to assume such power and authority, you are too little acquainted with your condition, and you do not know that you are men.” (277)
This diversity of expositions makes no difference as to the Prophet’s meaning, who had no other object in view than to confirm the doctrine taught in the preceding verse; for he still exclaims against proud men, who claim so much power to themselves that they cannot endure the authority of God, and entertain a false opinion about themselves, which leads them to despise all exhortations, as if they had been gods. Thus do they deny that God has created them; for whatever men claim for themselves, they take from God, and deprive him of the honour which is due to him.
Only in the first clause would the meaning at all differ; for those who interpret אם (ĭ m) affirmatively, consider this verse to mean, “ Truly, I will destroy you as a potter would break the pot which he had made.” But as the Prophet had to do with proud men, who sought out lurking-places in order to deceive God, I rather view it as a question, “Are you so able workmen that the revolutions of your brain can make this or that, as a potter, by turning the wheel, frames vessels at his pleasure?” Let every person adopt his own opinion: I follow that which I consider to be probable.
(276) Bogus footnote
(277) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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 potters 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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
say. Compare Isa 45:9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
your turning: Isa 24:1, Act 17:6
as the potter’s: Isa 45:9, Isa 45:10, Jer 18:1-10, Rom 9:19, Rom 9:21
or shall: Isa 45:11, Psa 94:8, Psa 94:9
Reciprocal: Isa 64:8 – are the clay Rom 9:20 – Shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
29:16 Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed {o} as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing formed say of him that formed it, He had no understanding?
(o) For all your craft says the Lord, you are not able to escape my hands any more than the clay that is in the potter’s hands has power to deliver itself.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
These politicians turned things upside down. They denied the Lord’s distinctiveness, sovereignty, and wisdom-and attributed those characteristics to themselves (cf. Isa 29:14; Isa 45:9; Isa 64:8; Gen 2:7; Jer 18:1-6; Rom 1:25; Rom 9:19-21). They told the Lord what to do rather than trying to discover what He wanted to do.
"It is the forgetting of God’s right as Maker that leads to ethical relativism." [Note: Oswalt, p. 537.]