以賽亞書 30:12-14
現代中文譯本(2019)
12 但是以色列神聖的上帝這樣說:「你們不理會我告訴你們的話,卻倚賴武力和欺詐。
13 你們犯罪了。你們像一道裂了縫的牆,會突然倒下來。
14 你們像粉碎了的陶器,沒有一片可以用來撿爐中的炭,或用來盛池中的水。」
ESV
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,
13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;
14 and its breaking is like that of a potter’s vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.”
《舊約-聖經背景註釋》
意象的根據
基於泥磚建築在古代近東極為普遍,所以這里描述的情況一定常常發生。埃及墓穴繪畫中可以見到整個過程,從把泥土、水、草和在一起,放在模子里做成磚塊(見:出五7~8)。磚頭經過風吹雨打,就慢慢剝落,不再堅固。如果磚頭只是曬幹,沒有放在窯里燒過,遇到墻太高而過重,就會倒塌。
剛開始會有縫隙或突起來,漸漸的整面墻就會轟然倒下(見九10)。為了防止不良工事,或是增加磚墻的壽命,漢摩拉比法典祭出嚴峻的刑罰,懲治那些不法包商。