Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ‘What have you brought forth?’”
The Lord proclaims with sovereign majesty that He alone is God, infinite and eternal; all others set up against Him are counterfeits and lies. He orders light and darkness, peace and punishment, all things, so let no man who rises to power forget he remains merely mortal, and there is no God but one.
AI summary
Commenting on Isaiah 45:5-10
Woe unto him that saith unto his father, what begettest thou?.... That quarrels with him, and complains of him, because he was not of the other sex, or not so wise, or so rich, or so handsome, as others: or to the woman; disdaining to call her mother: what hast thou brought forth?
If it be wrong for a child, born in less favorable circumstances, to upbraid his parents with having given him birth, a fortiori, it is, to upbraid God for His dealings with us. Rather translate, "a father . . . a woman." The Jews considered themselves exclusively God's children and were angry that God should adopt the Gentiles besides.