Isaiah 45:7-19

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KJV

⁷ I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
⁸ Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
⁹ Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
¹⁰ Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
¹¹ Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.
¹² I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
¹³ I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.
¹⁴ Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.
¹⁵ Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.
¹⁶ They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
¹⁷ But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
¹⁸ For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

NRSV

⁹ Woe to you who strive with your Maker,
    earthen vessels with the potter!^[a]
Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making”?
    or “Your work has no handles”?
¹⁰ Woe to anyone who says to a father, “What are you begetting?”
    or to a woman, “With what are you in labor?”
¹¹ Thus says the LORD,
    the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Will you question me^[b] about my children,
    or command me concerning the work of my hands?
¹² I made the earth,
    and created humankind upon it;
it was my hands that stretched out the heavens,
    and I commanded all their host.

[a] Cn: Heb with the potsherds, or with the potters

[b] Cn: Heb Ask me of things to come

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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See Genesis in Context -1 re God's purpose in creation.

Does this passage tell the story of creation differently from Genesis? See at J. D. Levenson on the translation of Genesis 1:1.

Literal Reading

This passage is cited here as "accepting" events of early Genesis "as literally true". It is also said to "imply literal Genesis" — does that ring true? (Where, and in what sense, is it both "literal" and parallel to Genesis?) —BP

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