New Living Translation
Isaiah 40:18
18To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble 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
16All the wood in Lebanon’s forests and all Lebanon’s animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of our God. 17The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing— mere emptiness and froth. To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him? 19Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains? 20Or if people are too poor for that, they might at least choose wood that won’t decay and a skilled craftsman to carve an image that won’t fall down!
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? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
- Isaiah 46:5“To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?
- Exodus 8:10“Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said. “All right,” Moses replied, “it will be as you have said. Then you will know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
- Exodus 9:14If you don’t, I will send more plagues on you and your officials and your people. Then you will know that there is no one like me in all the earth.
- Exodus 15:11“Who is like you among the gods, O Lord— glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders?
- Exodus 20:4“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
- Deuteronomy 33:26“There is no one like the God of Israel. He rides across the heavens to help you, across the skies in majestic splendor.
- 1 Samuel 2:2No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
- Job 40:9Are you as strong as God? Can you thunder with a voice like his?
- Psalms 86:8No pagan god is like you, O Lord. None can do what you do!
- Psalms 89:6For who in all of heaven can compare with the Lord? What mightiest angel is anything like the Lord?
- Psalms 113:5Who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high?
- Jeremiah 10:6Lord, there is no one like you! For you are great, and your name is full of power.
- Micah 7:18Where is another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love.
- Acts 17:29And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone.
- Colossians 1:15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme 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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