The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.
He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it.
Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.”
The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!”
They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv13, 15, 16, 18, 19 To place it in some Temple.
To place it in some Temple.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv13–19 Isa 44:13 The carpenter stretcheth out [his] rule; he…
Isa 44:13 The carpenter stretcheth out [his] rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.
Ver. 13. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule.] As did the carpenter of Cockram, who yet made but an ill-shaped rood, and was forced to sue for his money. {a} Mrs Catismore suffered in King Henry VIII’s days for saying that images were but carpenters’ chips; and yet they are no better. That is a remarkable saying of Seneca, Ridiculum est genu posito, &c. It is a ridiculous thing to worship images, and yet to slight the man that made them.
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And maketh it after the figure of a man.] God made man after his own image; and man, to be even with God, will needs make him after his image. {b}
{a} Acts and Mon., fol. 1340.
{b} Quasi ad hostimentum.
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 On vv13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 He here speaks, either,
He here speaks, either,
1. Of the same image, which is supposed to be made of wood, and then covered with some metal; or,
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2. Of another sort of images made of wood, as the former might be made of iron. It is not material which way you understand it.
He marketh it with a line; he measureth and marketh that portion of wood by his rule and line of which the idol is to be made.
According to the beauty of a man; in the same comely shape and proportions which are in a living man, whom he designs to represent as exactly as is possible.
That it may remain, or sit, or dwell; which implies either,
1. That it cannot stir out of its place; or,
2. That when the image is made, it is set up and fixed in its appointed place.
In the house; either in the temple appointed for it; or in the dwelling-house of him that made it; that he and his family might more frequently give worship to it, and might receive protection from it, as idolaters vainly imagined.
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 On vv13–19 The carpenter stretcheth out his rule,.... Or, the worker…
The carpenter stretcheth out his rule,.... Or, the worker of trees (e); that works in wood, or makes images of wood; having cut down a tree, he stretches out his rule or line upon it, and takes the dimensions of it, and measures the length and the breadth of it, as much as is for his purpose to make a god of: and then
he maketh it out with a line; coloured with ochre, or chalk, which leaves a mark, by which he knows where to cut it, and fashion it to his mind:
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and he fitteth it with planes; first with the rougher planes, which take off the knotty and more rugged parts; and then with a smoother plane, makes it even, and polishes it:
and he marketh it out with a compass; where its head and body, and legs and arms, and other parts must be:
and maketh it after the figure of a man; with all the parts and proportion of a man:
according to the beauty of a man; with the face and countenance of a man; with all the lineaments and just symmetry of a man; in the most comely and beautiful manner he is capable of, that it may be the more striking and pleasing to the worshippers of it. Jarchi's note is,
"this is a woman, who is the glory of her husband;''
and so the Targum,
"according to the praise of a woman;''
there being female deities, as Juno, Venus, Diana, and others:
that it may remain in the house (f); either in the temple built for it, whither its rotaries repair to the worship of it; or in the dwelling house, being one of the Lares or Penates, household gods: it may be, this is said by way of scorn and contempt; this god being made, is set up in the house, from whence it cannot stir nor move, to the help of any of its worshippers.
(e) "faber lignorum", Montanus; "artifex lignarius", V. L. Pagninus; "faber lignarius", Vitringa. (f) The note of Ben Melech is, "as it is the glory of a woman to abide in the house, and not go out of doors, so a graven image abides in the house.''
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 On vv13, 14, 15, 17, 18 According to - In the same comely shape and…
According to - In the same comely shape and proportions which are in a living man. House - In the dwelling-house of him that made it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17, 18 Verse 14. He heweth him down - "He heweth…
Verse 14. He heweth him down - "He heweth down"] For לכרת lichroth, the Septuagint and Vulgate read כרת carath or יכרת yichroth.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v18 Isa 44:18-20. They have not known, &c. — They…
Isa 44:18-20. They have not known, &c. — They want common discretion, and have not the understanding of a rational being in them. For what an absurdity is it for a man to dress his meat and make his god with the same piece of wood! Or to think that a log of timber hath any more divinity in it than it had before, because of the form man can give it, or any thing he can do to it! “When,” says Minutius Felix, “does it become a god! Behold, it is cast, fashioned, and carved! It is not yet a god. It is soldered, put together, and set up. Neither is it yet a god. Behold, it is adorned, consecrated, and prayed to! Then at length it is a god when men have chosen and dedicated it.” He hath shut their eyes — God hath. Not as if God made men wicked; he only permits them so to be, and orders and overrules their wickedness to his own glorious ends. And none considereth in his heart — By which the prophet implies, that the true cause of this, as well as of other absurd and brutish practices of sinners, is the neglect of serious and impartial consideration. He feedeth on ashes — An unprofitable and pernicious food, and no less unsatisfying and mischievous is the worship of idols. A deceived heart — A mind corrupted and deceived by deep prejudice, gross error, and especially by his own lusts; hath turned him aside — From the way of truth, from the knowledge and worship of the true God, unto this irrational and foolish idolatry; that he cannot deliver his soul — From this error, and the vengeance that will follow upon it; nor say, Is there not a lie, &c. — Is not this idol which I honour and trust to a mere fiction and delusion which will deceive me?
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 The carpenter - The axe is made Isa 44:12,…
The carpenter - The axe is made Isa 44:12, and the carpenter now proceeds to the construction of the god.
Stretcheth out his rule - For the purpose of laying out his work, or measuring it. The word rendered here ‘rule,’ however (קו qâv), means properly “a line”; and should be so rendered here. The carpenter stretches out a line, but not a rule.
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He marketh it out with a line - He marks out the shape; the length, and breadth, and thickness of the body, in the rough and unhewn piece of wood. He has an idea in his mind of the proper shape of a god, and he goes to work to make one of that form. The expression ‘to mark out with a line,’ is, however, not congruous. The word which is used here, and which is rendered ‘line’ (שׂרד s'ered) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. Lowth and Kimchi render it, ‘Red ochre.’ According to this the reference is to the chalk, red clay, or crayon, which a carpenter uses on a line to mark out his work. But according to Gesenius, the word means an awl, or a stylus, or engraver; with which the artist sketches the outlines of the figure to be sculptured. A carpenter always uses such an instrument in laying out and marking his work.
He fitteth it with planes - Or rather with chisels, or carving-tools, with which wooden images were carved. Planes are rather adapted to a smooth surface; carving is performed with chisels. The word is derived from קצע qâtsa‛, ‘to cut off.’ The Chaldee renders it, אזמל 'azemēl - ‘A knife.’ The Septuagint renders this, ‘Framed it by rule, and glued the parts together.’
Marketh it out with the compass - From חוּג chûg, “to make a circle,” to revolve, as compasses do. By a compass he accurately designates the parts, and marks out the symmetry of the form.
According to the beauty of a man - Perhaps there may be a little sarcasm here in the thought that a god should be made in the shape of a man. It was true, however, that the statues of the gods among the ancients were made after the most perfect conceptions of the human form. The statuary of the Greeks was of this description, and the images of Apollo, of Venus, and of Jupiter, have been celebrated everywhere as the most perfect representations of the bureau form.
That it may remain in the house - To dwell in a temple. Such statues were usually made to decorate a temple; or rather perhaps temples were reared to be dwelling places of the gods. It may be implied here, that the idol was of no use but to remain in a house. It could not hear, or save. It was like a useless piece of furniture, and had none of the attributes of 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 On vv13, 18 Man. To be styled afterwards a god. (Calmet) ---…
Man. To be styled afterwards a god. (Calmet) --- Maluit esse deum. (Horace i. ser. 8.)
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 On vv13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 After the smith's work in preparing the instruments comes…
After the smith's work in preparing the instruments comes the carpenter's work in forming the idol.
rule--rather, "line" [BARNES].
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with a line--rather, a "pencil," [HORSLEY]. Literally, "red ochre," which he uses to mark on the wood the outline of the figure [LOWTH]. Or best, the stylus or graver, with which the incision of the outline is made [GESENIUS].
planes--rather, "chisels" or "carving tools," for a plane would not answer for carving.
compass--from a Hebrew root, "to make a circle"; by it, symmetry of form is secured.
according to . . . beauty of a man--irony. The highest idea the heathen could form of a god was one of a form like their own. JEROME says, "The more handsome the statue the more august the god was thought." The incarnation of the Son of God condescends to this anthropomorphic feeling so natural to man, but in such a way as to raise man's thoughts up to the infinite God who "is a spirit."
that it may remain in . . . house--the only thing it was good for; it could not hear nor save (compare Wisdom 13:15).
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 On vv14, 18 14-17. Heweth… cedars… cypress… oak — Back of manufacture,…
14-17. Heweth… cedars… cypress… oak — Back of manufacture, the prophet now goes for the origin of idols. He seeks the trees from which they are made — trees which require rains long before they can be made into idols. He seeks the cedar, oak, holm oak. (Why seek trees of Palestine if this prophet is of Babylon at the time of Cyrus, and is not Isaiah one hundred and fifty years before?) The fig tree is used, too, but half of it — its chips — is taken for fuel to cook and warm by. Why such a material for the making of a god? Delitzsch quotes as follows, in loco: “Diagoras of Melos, a pupil of Democritus, once threw a wooden figure of Hercules into the fire, and said jocularly, “Hercules, come now, perform thy thirteenth labour, and help me cook my turnips.” With as keen a point does Isaiah virtually ask: “Is there a god in your cedar, holm, or fig tree logs or billets?”
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 On vv13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 13. The carpenter] lit., “the workman in wood.”
13. The carpenter] lit., “the workman in wood.”
stretcheth out a line, (R.V.)] to mark off the dimensions of the future image on the block of wood. For line in the next clause read pencil (as R.V.); the word, like that for “planes” (which may mean “chisels” or any cutting implement), occurs only here.
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fitteth] R.V. “shapeth”; lit. maketh.
that it may remain in the house] to dwell in a house; either a great temple, or a private shrine.
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 On vv13, 14, 15, 18 (13) The carpenter.—The wooden idol comes next. First there…
(13) The carpenter.—The wooden idol comes next. First there is the rough measurement with the “rule;” then the artificer draws the outline of the figure in red chalk. “Plane” and “compasses” come in to make the form more definite. The human figure is complete; then there is the artist’s final touch to add the element of beauty; and so it is ready for the “house,” or temple.
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 On vv13–19 The carpenter, etc. When the smith has done his…
The carpenter, etc. When the smith has done his part in the formation of tools, the carpenter is called into action. His proceedings are traced "extragressively." (Delitzsch). First, he is regarded as in possession of his block of wood. On this he proceeds to stretch out his rule, to obtain the idol"s length and breadth. Then he marks out on the block a rough outline with red chalk (sered). After this he pares away the superfluous wood with planes, or chisels, and marks out the limbs more accurately with the compass, planning and measuring until he has brought the rough block into the figure of a man, and impressed on it something of the beauty of a man, so that it may seem worthy of remaining in the place where it is set up, whether temple or private house. But there is something necessarily anterior to all this. To obtain his block, the carpenter must first cut down a tree, or have one cut down for him (ver. 14); to obtain a tree, he (or some one for him) must have planted it; for the tree to have grown to a fitting size, the rain must have watered it. So the very existence of these wooden idols depends ultimately on.whether it has rained or noti.e., whether God has given his rain or withheld it.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17 He planteth an ash
Isa_44:14
He planteth an ash
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The planter and the rain
The civilised and cultivated tree is the joint product of human care and the earths fertility.
Let us study the picture and see how true it is to what the world contains.
1. We may ask ourselves how it is that any institution or established form of human living comes to be prevalent and dominant. A strong idea, of freedom, of justice, of mercy, enters into some strong mans soul. It makes itself completely his. Then it will not be satisfied with him; it grows restless within him, and demands the world. Then he takes it out some day and plants it. With some vigorous, incisive word or deed he thrusts his live and fiery idea down deep into the fruitful soil of human life. Then human life takes up his idea and nourishes it. Wonderfully all the forces gather around it and give it their vitality. History bears witness that it has all been living by the power of that idea unknown, unguessed; philosophy says that in it lies the key of her hard problems; economy discovers that by it life may be made more thrifty and complete; poetry shows its nobleness; affection wreaths it with love; all the essential hopes and fears and needs of human nature come flocking to it; until at last you can no more conceive of human life without that idea than you can think with complacency of the landscape without the great tree which is as thoroughly a part of it as is the very ground itself. A free Church, a just court, a popular government--this is the way in which every institution comes to be. Here is the relation of the worlds few great creative men to the great mass and body of its life. Helpless Europe without Martin Luther. Helpless also Martin Luther without Europe. Here is the mutual need of great souls and the great world.
2. We have another illustration, even more striking, close at our hand, in the way in which character grows up in our personal nature. Where do our characters come from? It is easy sometimes to represent them as the result of strong influence which other men have had over us. It is easy at other times to think of them as if they made themselves, shaping themselves by mere internal fermentation into the result we see. But neither account tells the story by itself. When we question ourselves, not about character in general, but about special points and qualities of character, then we are sure that it was by some outer influence made our own, some seed of motive or example set into our lives and then taken possession of by those lives and filled with their vitality, developed into their owe type and kind of vice or virtue--it was thus that this, which is now so intimate that we call it not merely ours but ourselves, came into being. This is the reason of the perpetual identity along with the perpetual variety of goodness and badness. We are all good and bad alike; and yet every man is good and bad in a way all his own--in a way in which no other man has ever been bad or good since the world began,--just as all ash-trees are alike because they have all been planted from the same nurseries; and yet every ash-tree is different from every other because it has grown in its own soil and fed on its own rain: the society and the individuality of moral life.
3. The truth has its clearest illustration, it may be, in the way in which God has sent into the world the Gospel of His Son. Most sharp and clear and definite stands out in history the life and death of Jesus Christ. It was the entrance of a new, Divine force into the world. But what has been the story of that force once introduced? It has been subjected to the influences which have created the ordinary currents of human life. The characters and thoughts of men have told upon it. The Gospel has shared in the fortunes of the Christian world. It has followed in the track of conquering armies; it has been beaten back and hindered by the tempests of revolution and misrule; it has been tossed upon the waves of philosophical speculation; it has been made the plaything or the tool of politics; it has taken possession of countries and centuries only by taking possession of men through the natural affections of their human hearts; it has worked through institutions which it only helped to create. While it has helped to make the world, it has also at every moment been made by the world into something different from its own pure self. If you try to take either half of the truth by itself you get into the midst of puzzle and mistake. Think of the Gospel simply as an intrusion of Divine force kept apart from any mixture with the influences of the world, and it is impossible to understand the forms in which it has been allowed to present itself. Its weaknesses and its strength are alike unintelligible. Think of it as a mere development of human life, and you cannot conceive how it came to exist at all. But consider it in its completeness. Remember that it is a Divine force working through human conditions; let it be all one long incarnation, God manifest in the flesh--and then you see at once why it is so weak and why it is so strong; why it has not occupied the world with one lightning flash of power, and why it must at last, however slowly, accomplish its complete salvation.
4. Every Christian is a little Christendom; and the method of the entrance of the Gospel into the great world is repeated in the way in which the Gospel enters into every soul, which then it occupies and changes. Again, there is the special act of the implanting of the new life, and then there is the intrusting of the new-implanted life to the nature and its circumstances. The man was born again! Since then, long years have come and gone. What have they seen? The rain has nourished it--that long-sown seed! Nothing has happened since which has not touched that seed and helped or hindered its maturity. Still remember, it is His rain. The influences into whose influence the seed was given still were Gods. He took the child, and gave the friend, and sent you on the journey, and shaped the nature which bestowed on the Christian life its distinctive character.
5. May we not say that the principle itself includes the whole truth of the supernatural, and its relation to the natural? (Phillips Brooks, D. D)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 with a line
with a line
A string was used to outline the shape of the idol in the wood.
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stylus
This is a sharp tool to scratch the wood so the craftsman can see where to cut.
a compass
This is a tool with two points that spread out used to help mark the wood to make the idol.
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15, 18 44:15-17 he uses part of the wood to make…
44:15-17 he uses part of the wood to make a fire . . . he takes the rest of it and makes himself a god to worship: This description of the process of making an idol drips with sarcasm and ridicule at the stupidity of the foolish idol worshipers (see also 44:19).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.