Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 44:10

Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image [that] is profitable for nothing?

10. Who hath formed, &c. ] A rhetorical question: who has been such a fool? On molten a graven image see ch. Isa 40:19.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Who hath formed a god – The Septuagint reads this verse in connection with the close of the previous verse, But they shall be ashamed who make a god, and all who sculpture unprofitable things. This interpretation also, Lowth, by a change in the Hebrew text on the authority of a manuscript in the Bodleian library, has adopted. This change is made by reading ky instead of my in the beginning of the verse. But the authority of the change, being that of a single MS. and the Septuagint, is not sufficient. Nor is it necessary. The question is designed to be ironical and sarcastic: Who is there, says the prophet, that has done this? Who are they that are engaged in this stupid work? Do they give marks of a sound mind? What is, and must be the character of a man that bas formed a god, and that has made an unprofitable graven image?

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 10. See Clarke on Isa 44:9.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

What man in his wits can esteem that a god which his own hands have formed, or melt a graven image (understand out of the former clause, to be his god) which is profitable for nothing? He speaks of melting a graven image, because the image was first molten and cast in a mould, and then polished and graven with a tool, as was observed before. Or thus, Who art thou, O man, that formest a god, or meltest a graven image to worship it, which is profitable for nothing? Come hither, and let me reason the case with thee; which he doth in the following verses. So this verse is a kind of summons to idolaters to come and plead their own cause.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

10. Who . . . ?Sarcasticquestion: “How debased the man must be who forms a god!“It is a contradiction in terms. A made god, worshipped by itsmaker (1Co 8:4)!

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

Who hath formed a god,…. Who ever made one? was such a thing ever known? or can that be a god which is made or formed? who so mad, foolish and sottish, as to imagine he has made a god? or is it possible for a creature to be the maker of a god? or any so stupid as to fancy he had made one? yet such there were, so void of understanding and reason, and even common sense: “or molten a graven image”: first melted it, and cast it into a mould, and then graved and polished it, and called it a god?

that is profitable for nothing? or seeing it “is profitable for nothing”, as a god; cannot see the persons, nor hear the prayers, nor relieve the distresses of those that worship it; and therefore it must be great folly indeed to make an image for such a purpose, which answers no end.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

10. Who is the maker of God? He pours ridicule on the madness of men who dare to frame gods; for it is a shocking and detestable thing that men should take so much upon them as to create God. Every person certainly will greatly abhor such madness; and yet men are blindly impelled by foolish passion to manufacture gods, and no warning restrains them. On the other hand, they will say that this never entered into any man’s mind, and that injustice is done to them when they are accused of so great madness; just as the Papists in the present day say that we slander them, when we employ these arguments of the Prophet against them. But in vain do they rely on their sophistical reasonings for avoiding this charge. What the Prophet says is most true, that they are so mad as to think that they “make God;” for as soon as the stone or wood has been carved or polished, they ascribe to it divinity, run to it, make prayers, call upon it, and prostrate themselves before it, and in short, ascribe to it those things which they know to belong to God alone.

Which is profitable for nothing. We ought carefully to observe this clause, which condemns as vain and useless all the images by which God is represented. Hence it follows not only that God is insulted, whenever his glory is changed into dead images, but that all who procure idols for themselves lose their pains and suffer damage. Papists allege that they are the books of the unlearned; but this is a paltry evasion, for the Prophet testifies that they are of no use whatever. Let them, therefore, either erase this proof from the Book of Isaiah, or acknowledge that images are vain and useless. Formerly he expressed something more, when he affirmed that nothing can be learned from them but falsehood. But on this subject we have said enough in the exposition of these passages. (Isa 40:0 and 41.)

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

Isaiah Reveals The Folly of Idolatry ( Isa 44:10-20 ).

Note the contrast of this passage with what precedes it. Isaiah brings out that while it is Yahweh Who formed Israel, the idol is merely fashioned by its owner (Isa 44:2 with Isa 44:9-13). While Yahweh can pour forth that which produces growth, the idol is a part of what is grown. While Yahweh is the first and the last, the idol is but a spare bit of wood, and has had to be grown, and then shaped, and is even then something that could easily be turned to ashes.

Isa 44:10-11

‘Who has fashioned a god,

Or casted a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

Behold all his fellows will be ashamed,

And the craftsmen, they are simply human (‘they are of men’).

Let them all be gathered together,

Let them stand up.

They will be afraid.

They will be ashamed together.’

So let them consider the people who make these profitless gods and graven images. Even their own fellow producers of gods will be ashamed of what they have done, and as for the makers of these gods themselves, they are simply human, not having any divinity. How can they then make a god? So let them gather together and stand up to establish their case. They will not be able to do it. Instead they will be apprehensive, indeed, they will together as a group be filled with shame and confusion.

Isa 44:12

‘The blacksmith takes an axe, and works in the coals,

And fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm.

Yes, he is hungry and his strength fails,

He drinks no water and is faint.’

He gives an example of the folly of it all. (It should be noted that many intelligent heathen writers were just as critical of the ‘gods’). Here is the blacksmith working away on the god, with axe, and coals, and hammer, and strength of arm, but then he becomes weak because he has not eaten, or faint because he has not drunk some water. But can he turn to the god for strength? No, for the god cannot help him. Such is the god. It is made by man’s instruments and strength, and by a man who cannot keep going without food and water, and it is not able to sustain him. And it lies there useless until he has refreshed himself.

Isa 44:13

‘The carpenter stretches out a line,

He marks it out with a pencil,

He shapes it with chisels,

And he marks it out with compasses,

And he shapes it after the figure of a man,

Containing the beauty of a man, to dwell in the house.’

He continues to describe how these gods come into being. They are the careful work of a human carpenter, who uses all his tools and ingenuity and makes it so that it looks like some man pleasing to the eye in order to take its place in the temple or on the god-shelf. They are but an idea from a carpenter’s brain. Note the emphasis on the carpenter’s activity. It is all his doing. Any beauty it has comes from him.

Isa 44:14-17

‘He hews down for himself certain cedars,

Or takes the cypress and the oak,

And makes one of the trees of the forest,

To grow strong for himself.

He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it.

Then it will be for a man to burn,

And he takes of it and warms himself.

Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread.

Yes, he makes a god and worships it.

He makes a graven image and falls down to it.

He burns part of it in the fire, with part of it he eats flesh,

He roasts roast and is satisfied,

Yes he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm. I have seen the fire.”

And of the residue of it he makes a god, even his graven image.

He falls down to it and worships, and prays to it,

And says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.” ’

And what are these gods made of? They are made of trees which a man plants for himself, waits for it to grow strong, and then cuts down for his own use. They are the product of the rain, and are made of the same wood with which he warms himself by the fire, with which he cooks his meals, with which he bakes his bread, with which he roasts his roast.

He takes a great deal of trouble to get solid trees for all these purposes, using different branches for different purposes, for this is the purpose for which he has grown them, and one of them then becomes a god!

For when he has used the remainder of the branches he takes another odd bit of the tree, a branch that is left over, and makes an idol of it. To the branch in the fire he comments how pleasant it is to be warmed by it, the branch is serving him; to the branch of which he makes his idol he prays for deliverance. He is serving the branch. What folly! He talks to both, and one serves him and he serves the other, and they came from the same tree. And it was he who has decided which one will do which. And why do these men do this? Because they are spiritually blind.

Isa 44:18-19

‘They do not know, nor do they consider.

For he has closed their eyes so that they cannot see,

And their hearts so that they cannot understand.

And none brings it to mind,

Nor does he have the intelligence or understanding to say,

“I have burned part of it in the fire, yes I have also baked bread on its coals,

I have roasted flesh and eaten it,

And shall I make what remains an abomination?

Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?” ’

Such people do not stop and consider what they are doing. And this is because God has closed their eyes preventing them from seeing, and their hearts, preventing them from understanding. He has done this, not directly, but by how He has made them, with the result that they do not use their intelligence, they cannot be bothered to stop and think and consider their folly, the folly of falling down to the stock of a tree, the same tree that they have also burned up for domestic purposes.

‘An abomination’ is the term regularly used for idols.

Isa 44:20

‘He feeds on ashes.

A deceived heart has turned him aside,

So that he cannot deliver his soul, or say,

“Is there not a deceit in my right hand?” ’

‘He feeds on (over) ashes.’ This may be an abbreviated way of saying that the part of the tree that cooked his food has now turned to ashes while he feeds (i.e. he ate ‘over ashes’, because the fire smouldered on until it became but ashes), while the bit that made the idol is still in his right hand, and yet could just as easily be tossed in the fire and become ashes. He does not see that that too could just as easily have been ashes had he used that bit for cooking. Where would the god be then? But his heart is so deceived that he does not have the sense to see that the god is but a deceit. This maintains the previous contrasts.

Or it may signify that what he feeds on spiritually is but ashes, it has nothing left in it that is worthwhile. It is like ashes to the mouth. It is only fit to be spat out. ‘To feed on ashes’ may even have been a well known proverb signifying feeding on what is totally unsatisfactory.

Either way the main point is that his heart is deceived by something that could by nature become ashes. And this source of potential ashes has turned him aside from the living God so that he is unable to deliver himself from its grip and recognise that it is but a lie, a deceptive thing. ‘He cannot deliver his soul.’ That is he is so deceived that he cannot deliver his inner self from this thing that has taken hold of him. He is a slave to a piece of wood, that could easily be turned into ashes. He has been blinded by the god of this world (2Co 4:4).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Isa 44:10 Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image [that] is profitable for nothing?

Ver. 10. Who hath formed a god that is profitable for nothing? ] q.d, Who but a madman? , such as was Julian the apostate, called therefore Idolian by some.

“ Quis furor est, quae tanta animas dementia ludit? ”

– Sedullus.

What can be more ridiculous, a saith Basil, than for man to go about to make God? And yet Popish priests take upon them so to do: which made Averroes abhor Christianity, and wish that his soul might rather be among the philosophers.

a Quis haec ludibria non derideat? – Lact.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)