Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.
Parallel Translations
-
Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.
-
Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
-
Behold, ye are nothing, and your work a thing of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you.
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Isaiah 41:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 115:8 Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
- Isaiah 41:29 Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
- Jeremiah 10:8 But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
- Jeremiah 10:14 Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
- Deuteronomy 7:26 You shall not bring an abomination into your house and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it. You shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
- Deuteronomy 27:15 ‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
- Isaiah 37:19 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
- Isaiah 44:9-10 Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?
- Isaiah 66:24 “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
- Jeremiah 51:17-18 “Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.
- Revelation 17:5 And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain So that a man cannot make an idol, but…
So that a man cannot make an idol, but he must do that which God detesteth and abhoreth: for he chooseth his own devices and forsaketh the Lord’s.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 41:24 Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your…
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.
Read full note →
And your work of nought.] Or, Of the basilisk or viper; it will do you to death.
An abomination is he that curseth you.] Papists, therefore, must needs be abominable idolaters. Dr Rainolds’s work, De Idololatria Romana, is yet unanswered. Weston writes that his head ached in reading it.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Ye are of nothing; you lately were nothing, without…
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,
Read full note →
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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Behold, ye are of nothing,.... Not as to the…
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 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:
Read full note →
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.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Your work - Your operations are like your beings:…
Your work - Your operations are like your beings: there is no reality in your beings, nor efficacy in your actions.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 24. Your work of naught - "Your operation…
Verse 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 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 ס samech and ע ain. - Sal. ben Melec in loc.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Behold, ye are of nothing - Margin, ‘Worse than…
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.
Read full note →
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 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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Work. All that you can do or promise. Hebrew,…
Work. All that you can do or promise. Hebrew, "your work is worse than a viper."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain of nothing--(See on Isa 40:17). The Hebrew text is…
of nothing--(See on 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 (Deu 18:12).
Read full note →
chooseth you--as an object of worship.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 24. Behold, ye are of nothing — Hebrew, worse…
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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 24. The silence of the idols settles the controversy.
24. The silence of the idols settles the controversy.
of nothing … of nought] See on ch. Isa_40:17. The word ’épha‘ here is probably a copyist’s error for ’épheṣ.
Read full note →
he that chooseth you]—your worshipper.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (24) Behold, ye are of nothing.—This is the summing…
(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” (1Co_8:4). The demonic view of the gods of the heathen does not appear, as in St. Paul’s argument (1Co_10:20), side by side with that of their nothingness.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A pause may be supposed between vers. 23 and…
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."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.