⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other;
   besides me there is no god.
   I arm you, though you do not know me,
⁶so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
   and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
   I am the Lord, and there is no other.
⁷I form light and create darkness,
   I make weal and create woe;
   I the Lord do all these things.

⁸Shower, O heavens, from above,
   and let the skies rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation may spring up,^*
   and let it cause righteousness to sprout up also;
   I the Lord have created it.

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