Isaiah 41:24

Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you. YE ARE OF NOTHING - (note, Isaiah 40:17.) AND YOUR WORK OF NOUGHT. The Hebrew text [ mee'aapa` (H659), of the work of a viper] is here corrupt. So the English version treats it [it ought to be mee'aapec: cf. Isaiah 40:17 ]. ABOMINATION - abstract for concrete; not merely abominable but the essence of whatever is so (Deuteronomy 18:12). (IS HE THAT) CHOOSETH YOU - as an object of worship....

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 imaginat...

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 nu...

Verse Isaiah 41:24. _YOUR WORK OF NAUGHT_ - "Your operation is less than naught"] For מאפע _meepha_, read מאפס _meephes_; so the _Chaldee_ and _Vulgate_. A manifest error of the text; compare Isaiah 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 ס _samech_ and ע _ain_. - _Sal. ben Melec_ in loc....

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

SECTION II.—RECOVERY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD FROM THEIR SIN, AND FROM THEIR BONDAGE IN BABYLON (CH. 41-48.). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 41:1 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DELIVERER, AND EFFECT ON THE SURROUNDING NATIONS. Isaiah returns to the standpoint of Isaiah 40:9. A deliverer of Israel is about to appear. The nat

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. 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 perniciou

CHAPTER 41 Jehovah's Challenge 1. _The address to the islands and the peoples (Isaiah 41:1)_ 2. _Jehovah's question, Cyrus and his ways predicted (Isaiah 41:2)_ 3. _Nations troubled on account of Cyrus (Isaiah 41:5)_ 4. _Israel as Jehovah's servant (Isaiah 41:8)_ 5. _The message of comfort and assurance of restoration (Isaiah 41:9)_ 6. _Jehovah's second challenge: He alone can declare things to come (Isaiah 41:21)_ 7. The future t

YAHWEH'S CHALLENGE TO THE GODS OF THE NATIONS. The nations are bidden to produce their case and bring forward their champions their idols (so emend strong reasons). Let the idols show that in days gone by they have foreseen the antecedents of present developments, or explain the events now happening and about to happen. They remain dumb, and Yahweh taunts them with their impotence. He has raised up Cyrus; who among them had foreseen the event? Not one; how patent, then, their nothingness! ISAIAH 41:22. LATTER END: issue. THINGS FOR TO COME: THE immediate development from the present situation. Isaiah 41:23. be dismayed: rather (_cf. mg._), open our eyes in wonder. Isaiah 41:2

The argument of Isaiah 41:1 is resumed, but now the idols (Isaiah 41:23), not their worshippers, are addressed. Foreknowledge is the test of divinity. Can the idols produce any instance whatever of their power to predict, or indeed any proof of life and activity at all?...