Christian Standard Bible
Isaiah 40:18
18With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?
Isaiah 40:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
- New International Version (NIV)With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him?
- English Standard Version (ESV)To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
- New King James Version (NKJV)To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
Context of Isaiah 40:18
16Lebanon’s cedars are not enough for fuel, or its animals enough for a burnt offering. 17All the nations are as nothing before him; they are considered by him as empty nothingness. With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him? 19An idol? — something that a smelter casts and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver chains for? 20A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not fall over.
Read all of Isaiah 40Isaiah 40:18 word by word
וְאֶל־מִ֖י תְּדַמְּי֣וּן אֵ֑ל וּמַה־דְּמ֖וּת תַּ֥עַרְכוּ לֽוֹ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Isaiah 40:18
- Isaiah 40:25“To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
- Isaiah 46:5“To whom will you compare me or make me equal? Who will you measure me with, so that we should be like each other?
- Exodus 8:10“Tomorrow,” he answered. Moses replied, “As you have said, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God,
- Exodus 9:14For this time I am about to send all my plagues against you, your officials, and your people. Then you will know there is no one like me on the whole earth.
- Exodus 15:11Lord, who is like you among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?
- Exodus 20:4Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.
- Deuteronomy 33:26There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, the clouds in his majesty.
- 1 Samuel 2:2There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you! And there is no rock like our God.
- Job 40:9Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like his?
- Psalms 86:8Lord, there is no one like you among the gods, and there are no works like yours.
- Psalms 89:6For who in the skies can compare with the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord?
- Psalms 113:5Who is like the Lord our God — the one enthroned on high,
- Jeremiah 10:6Lord, there is no one like you. You are great; your name is great in power.
- Micah 7:18Who is a God like you, forgiving iniquity and passing over rebellion for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not hold on to his anger forever because he delights in faithful love.
- Acts 17:29Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
- Colossians 1:15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Commentaries on Isaiah 40:18
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 18To whom then will ye liken God? - Since he is so great, what can resemble him? What form can be made like him? The main idea here intended to be conveyed by the prophet evidently is, that God is great and glorious, and worthy of the confidence of his people. This idea he illustrates by a reference to the attempts which had been made to make a representation of him, and by showing how vain those efforts were. He therefore states the mode in which the…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 18-26Verses 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 sacrifice to offer, yet will not be without a god of his own. They spared no cost upon their idols; we grudge what is spent in the service of our God. To prove the greatness of God, the prophet appeals to all ages and nations. Those who are ignorant of this…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 18To whom … what image: Earlier in the book, Isaiah showed that idolatry is foolish and empty (Isaiah 16:12; 37:16–19). Isaiah 40–48, he gives a much longer argument against it. An idol is an object that people make to represent a god or a religious idea. But these objects are made by human hands. Those who worship them do not see that they are only things people have made. Idols have no power (Isaiah 41:7, 22–24; 48:14). They give people a false feeling of…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1818. Which of the heathen idols, then, is to be compared to this Almighty God? This passage, if not written (as Barnes thinks) so late as the idolatrous times of Manasseh, has at least a prospective warning reference to them and subsequent reigns; the result of the chastisement of Jewish idolatry in the Babylonish captivity was that thenceforth after the restoration the Jews never fell into it. Perhaps these prophecies here may have tended to that result…Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 40:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 40
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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