Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 40:21
Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
21. The next section (21 26) again commences with a series of questions driving home the force of the whole previous argument. The appeal seems to be still to mankind at large.
have ye not heard? Rather: Do ye not know? Do ye not hear? The two avenues by which the knowledge of God reaches the mind are reflexion on the facts of nature and history, and external testimony.
told you from the beginning) i.e. from the beginning of the world, by an unbroken tradition.
from the foundations ] The preposition “from” might easily have been accidentally omitted in the Heb. The LXX., indeed, and other Versions take “foundations” as obj. to “understood.” The parallelism seems to require the phrase to be taken in a temporal sense (cf. Rom 1:20). but there is no other case where the word has the sense of fundatio (properly, = fundamenta).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Have ye not known? – This is evidently an address to the worshippers of idols, and either designed to be addressed to the Jews themselves in the times of Manasseh, when idolatry abounded, or to all idolaters. The prophet had in the previous verses shown the manner in which the idols were made, and the folly of regarding them as objects of worship. He now turns and addresses the worshippers of these idols, as being without excuse. They might have known that these were not the true God. They had had abundant opportunity of learning his existence and of becoming acquainted with his majesty and glory. Tradition had informed them of this, and the creation of the earth demonstrated his greatness and power. The prophet, therefore, asks them whether they had not known this? Whether their conduct was the result of ignorance? And the question implies emphatically that they had known, or had abundant opportunity to know of the existence and majesty of God. This was emphatically true of the Jews, and yet they were constantly falling into idolatrous worship.
From the beginning – Hebrew, From the head, that is, from the very commencement of the world. Has it not been communicated by tradition, from age to age, that there is one God, and that he is the Creator and upholder of all things? This was particularly the case with the Jews, who had had this knowledge from the very commencement of their history, and they were, therefore, entirely without excuse in their tendencies to idolatry.
From the foundations of the earth – Have you not learned the existence and greatness of God from the fact that the world has been made, and that it demonstrates the existence and perfection of God? The sacred writers often speak of the earth as resting on a foundation, as upheld, etc.:
For he hath founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the floods.
(Psa 24:2; see also Pro 8:29) Perhaps here, however, the word foundation refers rather to the time than to the manner in which the earth is made, and corresponds to the phrase from the beginning; and the sense may be, Has it not been understood ever since the earth was founded? Has not the tradition of the existence and perfections of God been unbroken and constant? The argument is, that the existence and greatness of God were fully known by tradition and by his works; and that it was absurd to attempt to form an image of that God who had laid the foundations of the world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 40:21
Have ye not known?
—
Isaiahs questions
His sharp questions are as hooks to draw from his hearers hearts their timid and starved convictions, that he may nourish these upon the sacramental glories of nature and of history. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. Have ye not known] On this verse Kimchi has a very interesting comment, an extract of which I subjoin. “The whole world may be considered as a house built up; heaven its roof; the stars its lamps; and the fruits of the earth its table spread. The Master of the house is God, blessed for ever; and man is the steward into whose hand all the business of the house is given. If he always consider in his heart that the Master of the house is continually over him, and that he keeps his eye upon his work, and if in consequence he acts wisely, he shall find favour in the eyes of the Master of the house. But if he find wickedness in the house, then will he remove him min pekidutho, ‘from his stewardship.’ The foolish steward does not think of this; for as his eyes do not see the Master of the house, he saith in his heart, ‘I will eat and drink what I find in this house, and will take my pleasure in it; nor shall I be careful whether there be a master over this house or not.’ When the Lord of the house marks this, he comes and expels him from the house speedily, and with great anger; therefore it is said, Isa 40:23, He bringeth the princes to nothing.” It seems that this parable had been long in use among the Jews, as our blessed Lord alludes to it in his parable of the unjust steward. Or did the rabbin, finding it to his purpose, steal the parable from the Gospel? In both places it has great and peculiar beauties.
Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth – “Have ye not understood it from the foundations of the earth?”] The true reading seems to be mimmosedoth, to answer to merosh in the foregoing line. It follows a word ending with mem, and out of three mems concurring, it was an easy mistake to drop the middle one.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Have ye not known, to wit, God to be the only true God, the Maker and Governor of the world, and all its inhabitants? how can you be ignorant of so evident a truth? He addresseth his speech to the idolatrous Gentiles.
From the beginning, to wit, of the world, as the next clause explains it. Were not these infinite perfections of God manifestly discovered to all mankind by the creation of the world?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. yewho worship idols. Thequestion emphatically implies, they had known.
from the beginning(Isa 41:4; Isa 41:26;Isa 48:16). God is the beginning(Re 1:8). The tradition handeddown from the very first, of the creation of all things by Godat the beginning, ought to convince you of His omnipotence and of thefolly of idolatry.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Have ye not known?] This is the speech of the prophet, directed to the idolaters, appealing to their own natural knowledge, who, from the light of nature, might know that idols were nothing, had no divinity in them: that it is God that made the earth and governs the world, and who only ought to be worshipped:
have ye not heard? by tradition from the ancients, from your forefathers, who received it from theirs, and have delivered it to you:
hath it not been told you from the beginning? from the beginning of your states and kingdoms, and even from the beginning of the world, by the wisest and best of men that have been in it, that those things are true before related, and what follow:
have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? the being of God, the invisible things of him, his eternal power and Godhead, from the things that are made, even from his founding of the earth; as well as such knowledge and understanding has been as early as that, and might be continued from it: or,
have ye not understood the foundations of the earth y? what the earth is founded upon, and who laid the foundations of it; no other than that divine Being described in the next words.
y “nonne intelligetis fundamenta terrae?” Pagninus, Montanus; “annon intellexistis?” Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Having thus depicted in a few strokes the infatuation of idolatry, the prophet addresses the following question to such of the Israelites as are looking at it with longing eye, even if they have not already been deluded by it. “Do ye not know? Do ye not hear? Is it not proclaimed to you from the beginning? Have ye not obtained an insight into the foundations of the earth?” We have here four questions chiastically arranged. The absolute being of God, which is above all created things, is something which may be either inferred per ratiocinationem , or learned per traditionem . When Israel failed to acknowledge the absolute distinctness and unequalled supremacy of Jehovah its God, it hardened itself against the knowledge which it might acquire even in a natural way (cf., Psa 19:1-14 and Rom 1:20), and shut its ears against the teaching of revelation and tradition, which had come down from the very beginning of its history. The first two questions are construed with futures, the other two with perfects; the former refer to what is possible, the latter to what is an actual fact. Have you – this is the meaning of the four questions – have you obtained no knowledge of the foundations of the earth, namely, as to the way in which they were laid?
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
21. Do ye not know? After having ridiculed the stupidity and madness of the Gentiles, the Prophet turns to the Jews; for we are all prone to superstition, and thus we easily fall into it when any example is placed before our eyes. In consequence of mixing with the Babylonians during their captivity, the Jews were constrained to behold daily the basest examples of idolatry, and might be led away to wicked imitation. Isaiah therefore anticipates this at an early period, and warns them not to be carried away by the sight of such things.
He asks, “Have they not been taught, and have they not learned who is God?” The greater part of commentators think that all the questions here put are a repetition of the same truth, namely, that the creation of the world shews clearly that nothing can be more inconsistent than to seek God in wood and stone, silver and gold. But we may infer from the context that there are two clauses. Had he proceeded in his expostulation with the Gentiles, he would have brought forward no other witnesses than heaven and earth. But because he addresses the Jews who had been plainly taught by the Law, he brings forward direct arguments to refute them, drawn both from the order of nature and from the voice of God. And, first, he puts the question in general terms, “Do ye not know?” Next, he adds two methods by which they ought to have distinguished between the true God and the false gods. The former is drawn from the hearing of the Word, and therefore he expressly says, “Hath it not been told you? Have ye not heard?”
The latter method is borrowed from that magnificent theatre (118) in which the glory of God shines above and below. If the discourse had been addressed to foreigners and heathens, he would have been satisfied with this second demonstration, as we see that Paul also was; for, having to do with the inhabitants of Lystra, to whom no knowledge of heavenly doctrine had been conveyed, he employs none but natural arguments, that “God, by giving rain and sunshine, did not leave himself ( ἀμάρτυρον) without witness.” (Act 14:17.) But when the Prophet spoke to the Jews about true godliness, it would have been improper for him to pass by the Law, which rendered them doubly inexcusable if, by neglecting it, they profaned themselves with unbelievers; for they had been convinced not only by the sight of their eyes, but also by the hearing of their cars, which God beat incessantly by the preaching of his Law. Since, therefore, from their mother’s womb they had sucked along with the milk the true knowledge of God, and had been taught by their fathers through a long succession of generations, the Prophet justly argues that they will be exceedingly ungrateful and wicked, if such assistance produce no good effect upon them.
Hath it not been told you from the beginning? The phrase, from the beginning, or “long ago,” conveys the idea that not only had they been educated from childhood in the pure worship of God, but during a succession of ages there had been largely enjoyed by that nation a doctrine which would not suffer them to go astray, provided that they were attentive; as if he had said, “Ye have not any new God, but the same God who revealed himself from the beginning to Abraham, Moses, and the rest of the fathers.” And indeed it yields no small confirmation, that the doctrine which had been continued among believers during so many ages must have been ancient. Not that antiquity alone is sufficient for establishing the certainty of faith, (for, on the contrary, the Gentiles might easily have objected, that their superstitions were not less ancient,) but since “from the beginning” the authority of the Law had been abundantly ratified, and God had testified that it came from him, long experience added no small confirmation, when they knew that their ancestors had delivered to posterity a form of religion which they could not throw away without receiving the stamp of base apostasy. Such a commencement, therefore, and such progress quickly remove all doubt. It is one and the same faith that has been held by us and by our fathers, for they and we have acknowledged the same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The same word, the same promises, and the same end, have been exhibited to all believers.
From the foundations of the earth. This is figurative language, in which a part is taken for the whole; for a part of the world is put; for the whole world. God has exhibited this world as a mirror to men, that by beholding it they may acknowledge his majesty, so that it is a lively image of invisible things, as Paul explains at great length in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Their ignorance is therefore “without excuse;” for they cannot allege that they do not know God who has revealed himself in so many ways. (Rom 1:20.) And indeed men sin more through insolence and pride than through ignorance; for they despise God who manifests himself openly and speaks plainly, and their attention is occupied with creatures, and with the most trifling matters. Has such contempt any title to be excused? Do they not deserve to be blinded, and to adore their own inventions instead of God, which we see has happened to almost all? Such punishment is unquestionably just and due to so great pride. And if to that knowledge which we obtain through the creatures there be likewise added the doctrine of the word, we are much less excusable. Isaiah has therefore joined both kinds of knowledge, in order to shew that the Jews ought to be doubly condemned, if they did not place confidence in God, after having received instruction concerning his power and goodness.
(118) “ De ce beau theater du monde.” “From that beautiful theater of the world.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) Have ye not known? . . .Strictly speaking, the first two verbs are potential futures: Can ye not know . . . We note that the prophet appeals to the primary intuitions of mankind, or, at least, to a primitive revelation, rather than to the commandments of the Decalogue. (Comp. Rom. 1:20; Psa. 19:4.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. Such absurdities fit only for the sharpest sarcasm.
Have ye not known heard from the beginning? Addressed to those still inclined, among the doubters, to idolatry, and equivalent to saying to them, “Ye know better, and why are you guilty of such consummate folly?” Of the four verbs of this verse, the first two are, in the Hebrew, future, the second two in the past tense. The former imply what is possible, the latter what is fact. Have ye not known and heard, what has always been possible to know from reason and conscience, (Rom 1:19-20; Rom 2:13,) that only the infinite God can create worlds? “From the beginning” this has been set before the eyes of all men.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 40:21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Ver. 21. Have ye not known? have ye not heard? ] Both Jews and Gentiles went against the light; the former of the word, the latter of their own consciences, in thus “changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible creature.” Rom 1:23 Their ignorance was wilful and affected; some render this text, “Will ye not know? will ye not hear?” Idolaters are brutish and blockish; they that make them are like unto them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 40:21-26
21Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23He it is who reduces rulers to nothing,
Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
24Scarcely have they been planted,
Scarcely have they been sown,
Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And the storm carries them away like stubble.
25To whom then will you liken Me
That I would be his equal? says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high
And see who has created these stars,
The One who leads forth their host by number,
He calls them all by name;
Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,
Not one of them is missing.
Isa 40:21-26 This strophe is theologically related to Isa 40:12-17. They both describe God as Creator, all else is small and significant in comparison. He is the only reality, the only truth, the only living One! Idols have no existence and humans have existence only by His will! But amazingly He wills to know us, forgive us, and fellowship with us! What a God, who is like Him?
Isa 40:21 Do you not know This series of questions, like Isa 40:28, is meant to remind the Jews of God’s previous revelations to them.
from the foundations of the earth In context this is another allusion to creation. Interestingly, a similar phrase is repeated five times in the NT referring to YHWH’s actions before creation.
1. Mat 25:34 – inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world
2. Joh 17:24 – for You did love Me before the foundations of the world
3. Eph 1:4 – He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world
4. 1Pe 1:19-20 – He was foreknown before the foundation of the world
5. Rev 13:8 (possible object)
a. everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world
b. the Lamb who has been slain before the foundation of the world
God was active before, in, and after physical creation. He was active in Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Israel, and Christ for the redemption of all humans (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan )!
Isa 40:22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth. . .curtain. . .tent This is a common ancient Middle Eastern concept (cf. Isa 42:5; Job 9:8; Psa 104:2; Jer 10:12; Jer 51:15; Zec 12:1). In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, heaven is described as a skin. In the Rig Veda heaven is described as stretched out like a hide. This is simply a metaphorical way of speaking of the vault of the heaven (i.e., the atmosphere of this planet) above the earth. It is the language of metaphor.
The term curtain (BDB 201) is used in this sense only here. The word means to crush (cf. Isa 40:15, fine dust). Apparently it can also refer to something thin (KB 229, i.e., the dome that covers the earth). Remember interpreters look at
1. the context
2. the Semitic root
3. cognate languages
but #1 has priority!
Isa 40:25 the Holy One See full note at Isa 6:3 (Isaiah 1-39, online at www.freebiblecommentary.org ). This title is another purposeful connection between the first call of Isaiah, where he is told Israel will not listen until destruction (cf. Isa 6:9-11) and this second call, where he is told to speak kindly to her. She will listen now!
Isa 40:26 Lift up your eyes. . .see These are both Qal IMPERATIVES. Notice the parallel lines of Isa 40:26 a,b.
And see who has created these stars. . .He calls them all by name. . .Not one of them is missing It is very significant in light of Babylonian astral worship that God is depicted as the only creator, sustainer, and manipulator of the heavenly bodies (cf. Gen 1:16; Psa 8:3; Jer 31:35).
The term created in Isa 40:26 is the Hebrew term Bara. It is used in Genesis 1 of God creating. It is never used of anything or anyone except the creation of God. It occurs 20 times in Isaiah 40-66 (cf. Isa 40:26; Isa 40:28; Isa 41:20; Isa 42:5; Isa 43:1; Isa 43:7; Isa 43:15; Isa 45:7[twice],8,12,18[twice]; Isa 48:7; Isa 54:16[twice]; Isa 57:19; Isa 65:17-18[twice]).
Not one of them is missing This is a Hebrew idiom which means not one of them fails to report to muster. God controls the stars and planets. They are not gods.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Have ye not . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis, for emphasis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 27:11, Isa 44:20, Isa 46:8, Psa 19:1-5, Psa 115:8, Jer 10:8-12, Act 14:17, Rom 1:19-21, Rom 1:28, Rom 3:1, Rom 3:2
Reciprocal: Lev 4:25 – put Job 37:5 – great Isa 43:10 – that ye Jer 27:5 – made Eph 4:6 – who
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 40:21-24. Have ye not known Jehovah to be the only true God, the Maker and Governor of the world, and all its inhabitants? How can ye be ignorant of so evident a truth? He addresses his speech to the idolatrous Gentiles; from the beginning Namely, of the world, as the next clause explains it: were not these infinite perfections of God manifestly discovered to all mankind, by the creation of the world? It is he that sitteth As a judge or governor upon his throne; upon, or rather, above, the circle of the earth Far above this round earth, even in the highest heavens; from whence he looketh down upon the earth, where men appear to him like grasshoppers. As here we have the circle of the earth, so elsewhere we read of the circle of heaven, Job 22:14, and of the circle of the deep, or sea, Pro 8:27, because the form of the heaven, and earth, and sea, is circular. Spreadeth them out as a tent For the benefit of the earth and of mankind, that all parts might partake of their comfortable influences. That bringeth the princes to nothing Who can, at his pleasure, destroy all the great potentates of the world. Yea, they The princes and judges last mentioned; shall not be planted, &c. They shall take no root, for planting and sowing are in order to taking root. They shall not continue and flourish, as they have vainly imagined, but shall be rooted up, and perish.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
40:21 Have ye not known? have ye not {y} heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the {z} foundations of the earth?
(y) Do you not have the word of God, which plainly condemns idolatry?
(z) Can you not learn by the visible creatures whom God has made for your use, that you should not serve them or worship them?
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The incomparable Sovereign 40:21-26
The prophet’s emphasis shifted from God as Creator to God as Ruler, but still the point is His incomparability.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
There are lessons that people should draw from the uniqueness of God as Creator that He has revealed. God has given both the objective revelation of Himself and the ability to understand its implications to human beings. The Israelites possessed this knowledge of God because He revealed it to them. Special revelation is in view here rather than natural revelation.
"According to this verse there are two reasons why men who practice idolatry are without excuse. On the one hand, the very foundation of the earth is a testimony that God is the Creator. On the other, from the beginning the truth has been taught by word of mouth, so that those who have not been willing to hear it are without excuse [cf. Romans 1]." [Note: Young, 3:56-57.]