Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 41:24
Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of naught: an abomination [is he that] chooseth you.
24. The silence of the idols settles the controversy.
of nothing of nought ] See on ch. Isa 40:17. The word ’pha‘ here is probably a copyist’s error for ’phe.
he that chooseth you ] your worshipper.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold, ye are of nothing – Margin, Worse than nothing. This refers to idols; and the idea is, that they were utterly vain and powerless; they were as unable to render aid to their worshippers as absolute nothingness would be, and all their confidence in them was vain and foolish.
And your work – All that you do, or all that it is pretended that you do.
Of nought – Margin, Worse than a viper. The word used here in the common Hebrew text ( ‘epa) occurs in no other place. Gesenius supposes that this is a corrupt reading for ‘epes (nothing), and so our translators have regarded it, and in this opinion most expositors agree. Hahn has adopted this reading in his Hebrew Bible. The Jewish rabbis suppose generally that the word ‘epa is the same word as ‘epheh, a viper, according to the reading in the margin. But this interpretation is contrary to the connection, as well as the ancient versions. The Vulgate and Chaldee render it, Of nought. The Syriac renders it, Your works are of the sword. This is probably one of the few instances in which there has been a corruption of the Hebrew text (compare Isa 40:17; Isa 41:12, Isa 41:19).
An abomination is he that chooseth you – They who select idols as the object of worship, and offer to them homage, are regarded as abominable by God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. Your work of naught – “Your operation is less than naught”] For meepha, read meephes; so the Chaldee and Vulgate. A manifest error of the text; compare Isa 40:17. The rabbins acknowledge no such error, but say that the former word signifies the same with the latter, by a change of the two letters samech and ain. – Sal. ben Melec in loc.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ye are of nothing; you lately were nothing, without any being at all, and now you have nothing at all of divinity or virtue in you.
Your work; either,
1. Passively, your workmanship, all the cost and art which is laid out upon you. Or,
2. Actively, all that you can do. Your operations are like your beings; there is no reality in your beings, nor efficacy in your actions.
He that chooseth you; he that chooseth you for his gods, is most abominable for his folly as well as his wickedness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. of nothing(See on Isa40:17). The Hebrew text is here corrupt; so EnglishVersion treats it.
abominationabstractfor concrete: not merely abominable, but the essence ofwhatever is so (De 18:12).
chooseth youas anobject of worship.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, ye are of nothing,…. Not as to the matter of them, for they were made of gold, silver, brass, c. but as to the divinity of them: there was none in them, they were of no worth and value they could do nothing, either good or evil, either help their friends, or hurt their enemies; yea, they were less than nothing; for the words may be rendered by way of comparison, “behold, ye are less than nothing”; a. [See comments on Isa 40:17];
and your work of nought; the workmanship bestowed on them, in casting or carving them, was all to no purpose, and answered no end; or the work they did, or pretended to do, their feigned oracles, and false predictions: or, “worse than nothing”: some render it, “worse than a viper” b; a word like this is used for one, Isa 49:5 and so denotes the poisonous and pernicious effects of idolatry:
an abomination is he that chooseth you; as the object of his worship; he is not only abominable, but an abomination itself to God, and to all men of sense and religion; for the choice he makes of an idol to be his god shows him to be a man void of common sense and reason, and destitute of all true religion and godliness, and must be a stupid sottish creature. The Targum is,
“an abomination is that which ye have chosen for yourselves, or in which ye delight;”
meaning their idols. This is the final issue of the controversy, and the judgment passed both upon the idols and their worshippers.
a “vos minus quam nihil [estis]”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. b “pejus [opere] viperae”, Junius & Tremellius “pejus [est opere] basilisci”, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jehovah has thus placed Himself in opposition to the heathen and their gods, as the God of history and prophecy. It now remains to be seen whether the idols will speak, to prove their deity. By no means; not only are they silent, but they cannot speak. Therefore Jehovah breaks out into words of wrath and contempt. “Behold, ye are of nothing, and your doing of nought: an abomination whoever chooseth you.” The two are partitive, as in Isa 40:17; and is not an error of the pen for , as Gesenius and others suppose, but from = (from which comes ), , Isa 42:14 (from which comes , Isa 59:5), to breathe, stands as a synonym to , , . The attributive clause (supply ) is a virtual subject (Ewald, 333, b): ye and your doings are equally nil; and whoever chooses you for protectors, and makes you the objects of his worship, is morally the most degraded of beings.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
24. Lo, ye are of nothing. He now mocks at idols, in order to confirm the godly in the belief and worship of one God, when by the comparison they see that those who worship idols are miserably deceived and blind.
And your work is of nothing. Work must here be taken in a passive sense, as if he had said that it is a vain imagination, a contrivance of no value. But it may be thought that Isaiah speaks inaccurately, when he says that idols are of nothing, for they are composed of gold, or silver, or brass, or stone, or other materials. The solution is easy, for Isaiah did not look at the material, but at the quality, that is, the notion of divinity which men erroneously attribute to them. Superstitious people do not adore wood, or brass, or metal, viewed in themselves, but the majesty which they foolishly attach to the idol; (147) and this undoubtedly is nothing else than a vain imagination, Hence also Paul, in like manner, declares that “an idol is nothing;” for what reality can be ascribed, or what name can be given, to a mere image (1Co 8:4.)
He hath chosen abomination in you. Some translate abomination in the nominative case, and suppose the meaning to be, that the men who choose the idols are abominable; but I think that the meaning is different. The verb hath chosen, appears to me to be used indefinitely, as the grammarians call it, and in that manner it is often used in other passages of Scripture; for when the Prophets speak of the generality of men:, and relate any common or ordinary occurrence, they do not employ a substantive. I consider the meaning therefore to be, that men cannot frame idols without at the same time framing abomination. This is a remarkable passage for abhorring idols and the presumption of men who make them, which they cannot do without offering the highest insult to God. Some men think that it is amusement, but the Prophet declares it to be “abomination,” which God cannot endure, and will not permit to be unpunished. The word choose points out, as with the finger, the origin of idol-worship; for pure religion would never have been contaminated by so many corruptions, if they had not dared to make gods for themselves according to their own caprice; and therefore it ought to be remarked, that all kinds of worship that are the result of “choice” are at variance with true godliness.
(147) “ A l’idole corruptible.” “To the corruptible idol.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(24) Behold, ye are of nothing.This is the summing up of the prophet, speaking as in the Judges name. The idol was nothing in the world (1Co. 8:4). The demonic view of the gods of the heathen does not appear, as in St. Pauls argument (1Co. 10:20), side by side with that of their nothingness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Behold, ye are of nothing Hebrew, worse than nothing.
And your work of naught Hebrew, worse than a viper. If this be the true reading, they are not only worse than nothing but their work is venomous. Let us leave it so, rather than tinker with the text to make it mean (as Gesenius and others) something else. Idol adherents are venomous in their arts, and so they are an abomination.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 41:24 Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination [is he that] chooseth you.
Ver. 24. Behold, ye are of nothing. ] Hence Paul took that assertion of his; 1Co 8:4 “we know that an idol is nothing in the world.” For the matter of it, it is true, wood is wood, and stone is stone; but the relation and signification which is fastened thereunto, is nothing at all: all the being of an idol is nothing but the idolater’s imagination.
And your work of nought.
An abomination is he that curseth you.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
ye are: Isa 41:29, Isa 44:9, Isa 44:10, Psa 115:8, Jer 10:8, Jer 10:14, Jer 51:17, Jer 51:18, 1Co 8:4
of nothing: or, worse than nothing
of nought: or, worse than of a viper
an abomination: Isa 66:24, Deu 7:26, Deu 27:15, Rev 17:5
Reciprocal: 1Sa 12:21 – cannot profit Isa 34:12 – nothing Isa 41:11 – as nothing Jer 10:5 – do evil Jer 10:15 – vanity Act 28:3 – came
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
41:24 Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of naught: an abomination [is he that] {s} chooseth you.
(s) So that a man cannot make an idol, without doing that which God detests and abhors for he chooses his own devises and forsakes the Lords.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Since these challenges go unanswered, the Lord judges the idols as nothing, and their supposed work amounts to nothing (cf. 1Co 8:4). Furthermore, people who worship them are an abomination because they follow such nonentities and because in doing so they become like their gods.
"It is not the idea of polytheistic idolatry that is abominable [in itself], but rather the act of replacing the truth with that system [cf. Rom 1:18-23]." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 102.]