8. O sky, rain down from above!Let the clouds send down showers of deliverance!Let the earth absorb it so salvation may grow,and deliverance may sprout up along with it.I, the Lord, create it.
9. One who argues with his creator is in grave danger,one who is like a mere shard among the other shards on the ground!The clay should not say to the potter,“What in the world are you doing?Your work lacks skill!”
10. Danger awaits one who says to his father,“What in the world are you fathering?”and to his mother,“What in the world are you bringing forth?”
11. This is what the Lord says,the Holy One of Israel, the one who formed him,concerning things to come:“How dare you question me about my children!How dare you tell me what to do with the work of my own hands!
12. I made the earth,I created the people who live on it.It was me – my hands stretched out the sky,I give orders to all the heavenly lights.
13. It is me – I stir him up and commission him;I will make all his ways level.He will rebuild my city;he will send my exiled people home,but not for a price or a bribe,”says the Lord who commands armies.
14. This is what the Lord says:“The profit of Egypt and the revenue of Ethiopia, along with the Sabeans, those tall men,will be brought to you and become yours.They will walk behind you, coming along in chains.They will bow down to youand pray to you:‘Truly God is with you; he has no peer;there is no other God!’”
15. Yes, you are a God who keeps hidden,O God of Israel, deliverer!
16. They will all be ashamed and embarrassed;those who fashion idols will all be humiliated.
17. Israel will be delivered once and for all by the Lord;you will never again be ashamed or humiliated.
18. For this is what the Lord says,the one who created the sky – he is the true God,the one who formed the earth and made it;he established it,he did not create it without order,he formed it to be inhabited – “I am the Lord, I have no peer.