Isaiah 40:20
18 To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?
19 To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains?
To one bereft of an offering who chooses wood that will not rot, who seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple?
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- To one bereft of an offering who chooses wood that will not rot, who seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple?
- KJV
- 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.
- WEB
- He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.
- ASV
- He that is too impoverished for [such] an oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilful workman to set up a graven image, that shall not be moved.
- DARBY
- He that is impoverished, so that he hath no offering, chooseth a tree that doth not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilled workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.
- BLB
- One bereft of a contribution chooses a tree not rotten, and a skillful craftsman seeks out for himself to prepare a carved image [that] will not topple?
- ÅB
- Den som ikke har råd til en slik gave, han velger tre som ikke råtner; han søker opp en kyndig mester for at han skal få i stand et bilde som står støtt.
- OTB
- En person for fattig til et slikt offer velger tre som ikke vil råtne; de ser etter en dyktig håndverker til å sette opp et idol som ikke vil vakle.
- B1930
- Den som ikke har råd til en sådan gave, han velger tre som ikke råtner; han søker op en kyndig mester forat han skal få i stand et billede som står støtt.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Jeremiah 10:3–4
For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.
Read in contextIsaiah 41:7
The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.” He nails it down so it will not be toppled.
Read in contextIsaiah 46:7
They lift it to their shoulder and carry it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands, not budging from that spot. They cry out to it, but it does not answer; it saves no one from his troubles.
Read in contextIsaiah 2:8–9
Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.
Read in contextDaniel 5:23
Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.
Read in contextIsaiah 44:13–19
The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
Read in context1 Samuel 5:3–4
When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.
Read in context