Tree of Life Version
Isaiah 40:18
18To whom then will you liken God? To what likeness will you compare 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 is not enough to burn, or its animals enough for a burnt offering. 17All the nations are as nothing before Him. By Him they are accounted null and void. To whom then will you liken God? To what likeness will you compare Him? 19To an idol? A craftsman casts it, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. 20One too poor for such an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to prepare him an idol that will not totter.
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 then will you liken Me? Or who is My equal?” says the Holy One.
- Isaiah 46:5To whom will you liken Me, or make Me equal or compare Me, that we should be alike?
- Exodus 8:10They piled them together in large heaps, and the land stank.
- Exodus 9:14For this time I will send all My plagues to your heart, and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth.
- Exodus 15:11Who is like You, Adonai, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, awesome in praises, doing wonders?
- Exodus 20:4Do not make for yourself a graven image , or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth below or in the water under the earth.
- Deuteronomy 33:26“There is none like God, Jeshurun, riding through the heavens to your aid and through the skies in His majesty.
- 1 Samuel 2:2There is none holy as Adonai, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.
- Job 40:9Do you have an arm like God’s and can you thunder with a voice like His?
- Psalms 86:8There is none like You among the gods, my Lord, there are no deeds like Yours.
- Psalms 89:6The heavens praise Your wonders, Adonai —Your faithfulness, too— in the assembly of the kedoshim.
- Psalms 113:5Who is like Adonai our God, enthroned on high,
- Jeremiah 10:6There is none like You, Adonai! You are great and great is Your Name in power.
- Micah 7:18Who is a God like You pardoning iniquity, overlooking transgression, for the remnant of His heritage? He will not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.
- Acts 17:29Since we are His offspring, we ought not to suppose the Deity is like gold or silver or stone, an engraved image of human art and imagination.
- Colossians 1:15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of 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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