Isaiah 45:9

Woe unto him that striveth... — The sequence of thought is not at first apparent. Were those who strove, the heathen nations who resisted Cyrus, or Israelites who desired some other deliverer, say a prince of the house of David? The latter seems more probable. In either case men were guilty of the folly of criticising the Almighty.

Let the potsherd strive... — The sentence, as the italics show, is abrupt, but is better taken without inserting the verbs, and in apposition with the pronoun — Woe unto him ... a potsherd among the potsherds; a frail mortal like all his fellows.

Shall the clay say... — The potsherd suggests the potter, not without an allusive reference to the history of man’s creation in Genesis 2:7. As in Jeremiah 18:1; Romans 9:20, the thought pressed is that of absolute sovereignty, the belief in the wisdom and equity of that sovereignty being kept in the background, as a reserve force. The two clauses represent different aspects of presumption — the first questions, the other arrogantly condemns. The potter’s vessel says that the potter “has no hands,” is without creative power or skill.