Isaiah 41:24

Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Behold, ye are of nothing.—This is the summing up of the prophet, speaking as in the Judge’s name. The idol was “nothing in the world” (1Corinthians 8:4). The demonic view of the gods of the heathen does not appear, as in St. Paul’s argument (1Corinthians 10:20), side by side with that of their nothingness.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

41:21-29 There needs no more to show the folly of sin, than to bring to notice the reasons given in defence of it. There is nothing in idols worthy of regard. They are less than nothing, and worse than nothing. Let the advocates of other doctrines than that of salvation through Christ, bring their arguments. Can they tell of a cure for human depravity? Jehovah has power which cannot be withstood; this he will make appear. But the certain knowledge of the future must be only with Jehovah, who fulfils his own plans. All prophecies, except those of the Bible, have been uncertain. In the work of redemption the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews from Babylon. The good tidings the Lord will send in the gospel, is a mystery hid from ages and generations. A Deliverer is raised up for us, of nobler name and greater power than the deliverer of the captive Jews. May we be numbered among his obedient servants and faithful friends.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 (אפע 'epa‛) occurs in no other place. Gesenius supposes that this is a corrupt reading for אפס '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 אפע 'epa‛ is the same word as אפעה 'eph‛eh, 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 Isaiah 40:17; Isaiah 41:12, Isaiah 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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. of nothing—(See on [782]Isa 40:17). The Hebrew text is here corrupt; so English Version treats it.

abomination—abstract for concrete: not merely abominable, but the essence of whatever is so (De 18:12).

chooseth you—as an object of worship.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire 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 Gill on Isaiah 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, Isaiah 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.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. The silence of the idols settles the controversy.

of nothing … of nought] See on ch. Isaiah 40:17. The word ’épha‘ here is probably a copyist’s error for ’épheṣ.

he that chooseth you]—your worshipper.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - A pause may be supposed between vers. 23 and 24, during which the idol-gods are given the opportunity of "bringing, forth their strong reasons," and, in one way or other, proving their Divinity. But they are stricken dumb; they say nothing. Accordingly, "judgment goes against them by default" (Cheyne), and Jehovah breaks out upon them with words of contempt and contumely, Behold, ye are of nothing, etc. "Ye are utterly vain and futile." Isaiah 41:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 מן are partitive, as in Isaiah 40:17; and מאפע is not an error of the pen for מאפס, as Gesenius and others suppose, but אפע from עפע equals פּה (from which comes פּה), פּעה, Isaiah 42:14 (from which comes אפעה, Isaiah 59:5), to breathe, stands as a synonym to און, הבל, רוח. The attributive clause בּכם יבחר (supply אשׁר חוּא) 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.