New English Translation
Isaiah 41:24
24Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent; the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting.
Isaiah 41:24 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
- New International Version (NIV)But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; whoever chooses you is detestable.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Indeed you are nothing, And your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.
Context of Isaiah 41:24
22“Let them produce evidence! Let them tell us what will happen! Tell us about your earlier predictive oracles, so we may examine them and see how they were fulfilled. Or decree for us some future events! 23Predict how future events will turn out, so we might know you are gods. Yes, do something good or bad, so we might be frightened and in awe. Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent; the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting. 25I have stirred up one out of the north and he advances, one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. He steps on rulers as if they were clay, like a potter treading the clay. 26Who decreed this from the beginning, so we could know? Who announced it ahead of time, so we could say, ‘He’s correct’? Indeed, none of them decreed it! Indeed, none of them announced it! Indeed, no one heard you say anything!
Read all of Isaiah 41Isaiah 41:24 word by word
הֵן־אַתֶּ֣ם מֵאַ֔יִן וּפָעָלְכֶ֖ם מֵאָ֑פַע תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה יִבְחַ֥ר בָּכֶֽם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Isaiah 41:24
- Isaiah 41:29Look, all of them are nothing, their accomplishments are nonexistent; their metal images lack any real substance.
- Isaiah 44:9All who form idols are nothing; the things in which they delight are worthless. Their witnesses cannot see; they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.
- Psalms 115:8Those who make them will end up like them, as will everyone who trusts in them.
- Jeremiah 10:8The people of those nations are both stupid and foolish. Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless!
- Jeremiah 51:17All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4With regard then to eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that “an idol in this world is nothing,” and that “there is no God but one.”
- Isaiah 66:24“They will go out and observe the corpses of those who rebelled against me, for the maggots that eat them will not die, and the fire that consumes them will not die out. All people will find the sight abhorrent.”
- Deuteronomy 7:26You must not bring any abhorrent thing into your house and thereby become an object of divine wrath along with it. You must absolutely detest and abhor it, for it is an object of divine wrath.
- Deuteronomy 27:15‘Cursed is the one who makes a carved or metal image – something abhorrent to the Lord, the work of the craftsman – and sets it up in a secret place.’ Then all the people will say, ‘Amen!’
- Revelation 17:5On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of the earth.”
Commentaries on Isaiah 41:24
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 24Your 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.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 24Behold, 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‛ )…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 21-29Verses 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 21-29This trial scene develops the Lord’s case against idolatry. Idols are nothing but a human creation, whereas God is the Creator of all things. Idols cannot speak, act, accomplish anything, or save their worshipers.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 2424. of nothing--(See on Is 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 (De 18:12). chooseth you--as an object of worship.Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 41:24
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 41
- 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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