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Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

Isaiah 40:20

Verse Isaiah 40:20. Chooseth a tree that will not rot] For what? To make a god out of it! The rich we find made theirs of gold and silver; the poor man was obliged to put up with a wooden god! From the words "he that hath no oblation chooseth a tree," we may learn that the gold and silver necessary to make the graven image was first dedicated, and then formed into a god! How stupid is idolatry! Strange that these people did not perceive that there could be no help in these molten and wooden idols!

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See also Isaiah 40:20 in other biblical comments:

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    HE THAT IS SO IMPOVERISHED - So poor. So it is generally supposed that the word used here is to be understood, though interpreters have not been entirely agreed in regard to its signification. The Sep...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    II. THE LATER PROPHECIES OF COMFORT AND GLORY (40-66) Like the first part this second part of Isaiah has three sections. The three sections of the first part revealed the judgments to come upon the Je...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    AN EXPANSION OF THE TEXT SUGGESTED IN ISAIAH 40:6. Isaiah 40:12. The Majesty of God, in Whose Eyes the World is Insignificant. God is the Creator, disposing of earth and heaven as very small things. N...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    CHOOSETH. See note on Isaiah 1:29. PREPARE. construct. See note on "the smith", &c., Isaiah 44:12. GRAVEN. carved. Same word, but made by cutting....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    "To whom will ye liken God?" This question introduces the second distinct theme of the argument, the folly of idolatry. Although the prophet has in his mind the difficulties of Jews impressed by the f...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _He that is so … oblation_ R.V. HE THAT IS TOO IMPOVERISHED FOR SUCH AN OBLATION (lit. impoverished with respect to an oblation). If the text be sound this seems the only possible interpretation, alth...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    TO WHOM THEN WILL YE LIKEN GOD?— _To whom,_ &c. or _what resemblance will ye contrive for him?_ Isaiah 40:19. _The workman casts an image; and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and worketh silver c...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    b. PERCEIVE THE NATURE OF THE LORD TEXT: Isaiah 40:12-26 12 Who hath measured the water in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a me...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. HE THAT (IS) SO IMP...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    ISRAEL'S RESTORATION FROM EXILE IN BABYLON On the authorship and date of these Chapter s see Intro. According to their subject matter, they fall naturally into three divisions of almost equal length...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    RV 'He that is too impoverished for _such_ an oblation,' etc....

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    A man may try to make his own god. But an *idol cannot live. And it has no possible use. Its maker even has to fix it firmly in position. Otherwise it will fall. • The *Lord God is spirit. He is not...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    ISAIAH: GOD CONTROLS THE NATIONS GOD PROMISES COMFORT TO HIS PEOPLE ISAIAH CHAPTER S 40 TO 48 _NORMAN HILLYER_ CHAPTER 40 This chapter begins the second half of the Book of Isaiah. • In CHAPTER...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    HE THAT IS SO IMPOVERISHED... — The transition is abrupt, but the intention apparently is to represent idolatry at its opposite extremes of the elaborate art in which kings and princes delighted, and...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    הַֽ מְסֻכָּ֣ן תְּרוּמָ֔ה עֵ֥ץ לֹֽא ־יִרְקַ֖ב...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    CHAPTER I THE DATE OF Isaiah 40:1; Isaiah 41:1; Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 43:1;...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    THE EVERLASTING GOD THE GIVER OF STRENGTH Isaiah 40:18-31 Day changes to night, and as the twilight deepens, the stars come out in their myriads, Isaiah 40:26. To the poetic eye of the watcher, they...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    We now commence the prophecies of peace, which also fall into three divisions, dealing in turn with the purpose of peace (40-48), the Prince of Peace (49-57), the program of peace (58-66). The fist el...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    He that [is] so (x) impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree [that] will not rot; he seeketh for himself a skilful workman to prepare a graven image, [that] shall not be moved. (x) He sh...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Wood. Hebrew hamsuccan, (Haydock) which Septuagint, Chaldean, and St. Jerome explain of a sort of wood used for idols. Moderns take it to be "a rich," or rather "a poor man. He who is mean in his off...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Who but must feel humbled to the very dust of the earth, while reading, in these verses, the sad state to which man is reduced by the fall? We see man so prone to idolatry, that if the poor creature b...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    20._The poor chooseth for his offering wood that will not rot. _He concludes that no class of men is free from that crime, that the rich and poor alike are guilty and condemned; for the rich make thei...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    The first part of that which might be called the second book of Isaiah extends from chapter 40 to the end of chapter 48. The Messiah is, comparatively speaking, but little introduced here. It is rathe...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    HE THAT IS SO IMPOVERISHED THAT HE HATH NO OBLATION,.... Who is so poor that he cannot bring an offering to his God, yet he will have one; and though he cannot purchase a golden or silver one, or one...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    He that [is] so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree [that] will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, [that] shall not be moved. Ver. 20. He that...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _The workman melteth a graven image_ He melteth some base metal into a mould which giveth it the form of an image, which afterward is graven or carved to make it the more exact and pleasing likeness o...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, that is, the heathen priest who is supported by such gifts, CHOOSETH A TREE THAT WILL NOT ROT, the most durable wood; HE SEEKETH UNTO HIM A CUNNING...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Jehovah the Supreme Ruler. The connection of thought between this section and the foregoing one is this, that the majesty and glory of God over against the idolatry of the heathen nations guarantees...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    IS SO IMPOVERISHED: _ Heb._ I poor of oblation...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    18-26 Whatever we esteem or love, fear or hope in, more than God, that creature we make equal with God, though we do not make images or worship them. He that is so poor, that he has scarcely a sacrif...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    THAT HE HATH NO OBLATION; that he can hardly procure money sufficient to buy the meanest sacrifice for his God. HE SEEKETH UNTO HIM A CUNNING WORKMAN; he is so mad upon his idols, that he will one way...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Isaiah 40:20 impoverished H5533 (H8794) (H8676) H5534 (H8765) contribution H8641 Chooses H977 (H8799) tree...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE GREATNESS OF GOD PROCLAIMED (ISAIAH 40:12). And He will be able to do it because of His greatness. In this vital passage the greatness of God to do What He declares He will do is now revealed in...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Isaiah 40:1. _Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God._ «They need it, and they shall have it. Mind, O my servants, that you give it to them: Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Isaiah 40:1. _Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem._ The loss of comfort is no small loss. God would have his people happy. They are in the best conditi...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Joyful prospect given to the people of God of the happiness of coming redemption. Reproof for their despondencies. CHARACTERS: God, Holy Spirit, Isaiah. CONCLUSION: Nothing can be spoken mo...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Isaiah 40:1. _Comfort ye, comfort ye my people._ What a sweet voice is this to the church, after all her long afflictions. The words are doubled, to designate the fulness of comfort in the pardon of s...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _A graven image_ “AN IMAGE THAT WILL NOT TOTTER” If an idol leant over or fell that was the very worst of omens; _cf _the case of Dagon. (_Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D._) THE ABSURDITY OF IDOLATRY A w...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?_ THE GRANDEUR OF GOD The prophet’s notions of God are diffused through all the verses of the text. The prophet’s design in describing the Dei...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ISAIAH—NOTE ON ISAIAH 40:18 GOD alone is God. Isaiah sarcastically describes the process of making an idol. ⇐...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    PART III. ISAIAH'S LATER PROPHECIES (CH. 40-66.). SECTION I. THE PEOPLE OF GOD COMFORTED IN TRIBULATION (Isaiah 40:1.). EXPOSITION...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    But he's talking about a whole new message of God for the people as we get into the new covenant of God. And so it is appropriate that this new section of Isaiah begins with the word of the Lord decla...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Samuel 5:3; 1 Samuel 5:4; Daniel 5:23; Isaiah 2:8; Isaiah 2:9;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    He — That can hardly procure money to buy a sacrifice. Chuseth — He is so mad upon his idols, that he will find money to procure the choicest materials, and the best artist to make his idol. An image...

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