Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 40:15

Behold, the nations [are] as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

15 17. The insignificance of collective humanity before Jehovah. The meditation passes from Nature to History, with the same design of encouraging those who doubted Jehovah’s power to save.

a drop of a bucket ] Rather: a drop from the bucket; which falls away without appreciably lessening the weight.

the small dust &c. ] which does not turn the scale.

the isles ] a characteristic word of the second half of Isaiah, occurring 12 times (see Introd. p. xlviii). In the general usage of O.T. it denotes the islands and coastlands of the Mediterranean (comp. the use of the singular by Isaiah in ch. Isa 20:6). Etymologically it probably means simply “habitable lands”; and this prophet uses it with great laxity, hardly distinguishing it from “lands” (see esp. ch. Isa 42:15).

as a very little thing ] “a grain of powder,” used of the manna, Exo 16:14.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Behold, the nations – All the nations of the earth. This is designed to show the greatness of God, in comparison with that which strikes man as great – a mighty nation; and the main object seems to be, to show that God could accomplish his purposes without their aid, and that they could not resist him in the execution of his plans. If they were as nothing in comparison with him, how easily could he execute his purposes! If they were as nothing, how little could they resist the execution of his plans!

Are as a drop of a bucket – In comparison with him; or are so esteemed by him. The drop that falls from the bucket in drawing water is a trifle. It has no power, and compared with the waters of the ocean it is as nothing. So small is the power of the nations in comparison with God. And are counted. Are thought of, regarded, esteemed by him, or in comparison with him.

As the small dust of the balance – The small, fine dust which collects on the best finished and most accurate balance or scales, and which has no effect in making the scales uneven, or making either side preponderate. Nothing can be a more striking representation of the fact that the nations are regarded as nothing in comparison with God.

Behold, he taketh up the isles – Or he is able to do it; he could remove the isles as the fine dust is driven before the whirlwind. A more literal translation of this passage would be, Lo, the isles are as the dust which is taken up, or which one takes up; that is, which is taken up, and carried away by the wind. There is something unusual in the expression that God takes up the isles, and the idea is rather that the isles in his sight are regarded as the fine dust which the wind sweeps away. So the Chaldee renders it, Lo, the isles are like ashes which the wind drives away. The word isles, Vitringa and Jerome regard as denoting not the small portions of land in the sea that are surrounded by water, but lands which are encompassed and enclosed Mesopotamia. But there is no reason why it should not be taken here in its usual signification, as denoting the islands of the sea. They would serve well to be used in connection with mountains and hills in setting forth the vast power of God.

As a very little thing – ( k^eddaq). The word daq means theft which is beaten small, or fine; and then fine dust, chaff, or any light thing which the wind easily sweeps away.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 40:15

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket

The greatness of God and His works

I.

THE GREATNESS OF GOD AND HIS WORKS.

II. GOD CONSTANTLY GOVERNETH THE WORLD WHICH HE HATH MADE. And as all creatures from the highest to the lowest have their subsistence in the power of God, so they are each of them noticed by His eye and governed by His providence; that is, by the immediate energy of His own power, or by agents which are under His direction, and who cannot act but by His power. That care of the Supreme Being, by which this general order or stated course of things is preserved, may not unfitly be called a general providence. Consider the great extent of it. It taketh place not only in the frame of the universe, the regular motion of the vast bodies which compose it, by which we have spring and harvest, summer and winter, day and night; not only in the fruitfulness of the earth, and the state of the several kinds of animals which inhabit it, and the manner in which the kinds and the individuals are preserved; but in human affairs likewise. But it is particularly pleasing to observe how minutely this providence of the Supreme Being descendeth, even to the notice and direction of the smallest and most inconsiderable things. Our Saviour, and this according to the justest philosophy that ever appeared in the world, representeth His Heavenly Father as clothing the lilies of the field, and as feeding the ravens; and argues from this, that if He attends to these things, which are comparatively of the smallest account, surely His providence will not neglect His creatures of a nobler order (Luk 12:1-59.). Thus, though God is so great, He humbleth Himself to behold things which are done in heaven and upon earth, and takes notice even of the lowest orders of creatures, and of every individual. For, besides that general order of causes and effects which He hath established, and maintaineth from age to age, there are plain footsteps of a particular providence regarding individual persons. By the interpositions of providence things are so governed and conducted that His purposes are pursued and carried into execution; and manifold are the means by which this may be effected. How important the events which arise out of things which appear to us purely accidental!

III. These reflections naturally lead our thoughts to THE HAPPINESS OF THE SUPREME BEING IN HIS PERFECTIONS AND WORKS, a subject, indeed, as little to be comprehended by us, as we can find out the Almighty unto perfection. Yet we cannot avoid the thought how high, and in all respects perfect, the felicity of the first cause of all things must be; and love to God will make a right heart rejoice and exult in it. Nor let it be objected, that in the universe there is much irregularity, and many evils and sufferings. For what to us hath the appearance of irregularity may be, nay, assuredly is, necessary to the harmony of the whole; and part of a design which was the best and worthiest which could be framed. As for those sufferings which the subjects of a moral government bring upon themselves, they are as necessary as that government itself; which is indeed the glory of Gods creation, and without which, and those orders of creatures which are made to be the subjects of such a government, the universe must have been nothing to what it is now. An universe without angels, without men, without any such orders of intellectual and moral beings, what would it have been? But the glorious Head and Regent of that vast body, which is all harmony, all order and beauty, and in which no part of the grand design hath failed, or ever can fail, what happiness must He taste! Concluding reflections–

1. If our minds are rightly impressed with a sense of the Divine greatness and majesty, how little must what we are apt to call great upon earth appear in our eye!

2. Let us in all things meekly and affectionately submit to the supreme Ruler; in humble obedience to His laws, and in unreserved resignation to His providence.

3. Let us put our trust in God. (J. Duchals, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

The nations, all the nations of the world,

are as a drop of a bucket, compared with all the water in the bucket, wherein are innumerable drops: such are they if compared with God.

And are counted by him, and in comparison of him, as the small dust of the balance; which accidentally cleaves to the balance, but makes no alteration in the weight.

The isles; those numerous and vast countries to which they went from Judea by sea, which are commonly called isles, as hath been oft observed.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

15. ofrather, (hanging) froma bucket [MAURER].

he taketh up . . . as a verylittle thingrather, “are as a mere grain of dust which istaken up,” namely, by the wind; literally, “one taketh up,”impersonally (Ex 16:14)[MAURER].

islesrather, “lands“in general, answering to “the nations” in the parallelclause; perhaps lands, like Mesopotamia, enclosed by rivers[JEROME] (so Isa42:15). However, English Version, “isles”answers well to “mountains” (Isa40:12), both alike being lifted up by the power of God; in fact,”isles” are mountains upheaved from the bed of the sea byvolcanic agency; only that he seems here to have passed fromunintelligent creatures (Isa40:12) to intelligent, as nations and lands, thatis, their inhabitants.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket,…. Not only the Chaldeans and Babylonians, and other nations most known, and most troublesome to the Jews, but all the nations of the world; these, in comparison of God, of his infinite and immense Being, are but as a drop of water that hangs upon the bucket, or falls from it, when water is drawn by it, or is left in it, when poured out of it; which is nothing in comparison of the well out of which the water is drawn, or even of the water in the bucket drawn out of it:

and are accounted as the small dust of the balance; that is, they are accounted nothing of with God, comparatively speaking, any more than the small dust which hangs upon the balance, and gives it no weight, nor turn one way or another, and so is of no consideration. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, “as the turn of the scale”; and so the Targum; but the other version more strongly expresses the sense:

behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing; by which are meant not merely islands, properly so called, which are encompassed by the sea, but all such countries which the Jews used to go to by sea, for all such they called isles; these the Lord can take up, or cast away u, as some render the word; toss them about, overturn and destroy, as a man may take up the most minute thing and cast it from him. The Targum renders it,

“as chaff which flies away;”

or, as others translate it,

“as the ashes of a coal which fly away.”

The word may signify any light thing, as chaff, straw, stubble, feathers, down of thistles, which are easily carried away with the least force; and so Vitringa renders the words, “behold, the isles are as some little thing which flies away”.

u “projiciet”, Pagninus, Tigurine version; so R. Jonah in Ben Melech.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

From His exaltation as Creator, the prophet now proceeds to His exaltation as Governor of the world. “Behold, nations like a little drop on a bucket, and like a grain of sand in a balance, are they esteemed; behold, islands like an atom of dust that rises in the air.” Upon Jehovah, the King of the world, does the burden rest of ruling over the whole human race, which is split up into different nations; but the great masses of people over whom Jehovah rules are no more burden to Him than a drop hanging upon a bucket is a burden to the man who carries it ( min is used in the same sense as in Son 4:1; Son 6:5), no more than the weight in a balance is perceptibly increased or diminished by a grain of sand that happens to lie upon it ( shachaq , from shachaq , to grind to powder). The islands, those fragments of firm ground in the midst of the ocean ( = ivy, from , to betake one’s self to a place, and remain there), upon which the heathen world was dispersed (Gen 10), are to Him who carries the universe like the small particle of dust ( from , to crush or pulverize), which is lifted up, viz., by the slightest breath of wind ( metaplastic fut. niph. of tul = natal , cf., Isa 63:9). The rendering of Knobel, “dust which is thrown,” would require (Isa 41:2); and neither that of Gesenius, viz., “He takes up islands like a particle of dust,” nor that of Hitzig, “He carries islands,” etc., is admissible, for = signifies tollere , not portare ; and the former, viz., insulas tollit , furnishes no answer to the question, “How so, and to what end?”

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

15. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket. If we wish to understand the Prophet’s meaning, and to read these words with advantage, we must (as I remarked a little before) understand his design. He does not celebrate the greatness of God in a detached manner, but extols it with the utmost. possible adaptation to the present subject, that Israelites may know that this shield alone is sufficient to protect them, and that they will have no reason to dread the efforts, or rage, or violence of the world, if God be reconciled to them, and that they may thus learn to betake themselves to God’s protection; for if they were not fully convinced of this, there would arise at every moment various causes of despair. Isaiah thus continues the subject, when he says that all nations and peoples are nothing when compared with God; for, by simply breathing on them, he will scatter like small dust all the inhabitants of the earth. In consequence of our being excessively prone and foolishly ingenious in devising reasons of distrust, we imagine that everything that Satan does for the purpose of hindering our salvation blocks up the path of God. For the purpose of correcting this error, the Prophet declares that all the creatures are nothing before God, and that all the nations resemble small and inconsiderable drops of water. Hence we infer that nothing can be more contrary to reason than to exalt creatures for the sake of diminishing the power of God, which is high above all, and ought to be so acknowledged.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(15) The nations are as a drop . . .Nations and isles bring us into the region of human history, as distinct from that of the material world. Isles as elsewhere, stands vaguely for far-off lands, or sea-coasts. The word is that of one who looks on the Mediterranean, and thinks of the unexplored regions that lie in it and around. It is one of Isaiahs favourite words in this aspect of its meaning.

A drop of a bucket.Better, on a bucket. Such a drop adds nothing to the weight which the bearer feels; as little do the nations and the isles to the burden which Jehovah bears. The small dust in the balance presents another illustration of the same idea.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

15. The nations are as a drop So far the omnipotence and omniscience of God: now his exaltation as governor of the universe. Necessarily, all expressions of God’s natural attributes are anthropomorphic, after the limited human way of speaking; and, whatever metaphysicians may say, or attempt to say, Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets intellectually, never attempts to get beyond this. The thought here is, that the great nations of earth are no more a burden resting upon the King of the world than a drop hanging from a bucket is a burden to the man carrying it no more than the weight in the balances is perceptibly increased by the smallest sand atom that lies upon it.

Isles Or fragments of the solid continent on which the heathen world is scattered, are to Him who carries the universe like the smallest dust rising in the air. Delitzch.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments