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Let justice descend, you heavens, like dew from above,
    like gentle rain let the clouds drop it down.
Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;
    let righteousness spring up with them![a]
    I, the Lord, have created this.(A)
Woe to anyone who contends with their Maker;(B)
    a potsherd among potsherds of the earth![b]
Shall the clay say to the potter, “What are you doing?”
    or, “What you are making has no handles”?
10 Woe to anyone who asks a father, “What are you begetting?”
    or a woman, “What are you giving birth to?”

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Footnotes

  1. 45:8 The Vulgate rendering gave a messianic sense to this verse, using “just one” and “savior” in place of “justice” and “salvation,” phraseology taken over in the Advent liturgy, e.g., the “Rorate coeli.”
  2. 45:9 No one may challenge God’s freedom of action, exemplified here by the selection of Cyrus as his anointed.