Bible Compass
Log inGet started
Back to the chapter

Isaiah 44:14

12 The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.

13 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.

He cuts down cedars or retrieves a cypress or oak. He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel, and the rain makes it grow.

15 It serves as fuel for man. He takes some of it to warm himself, and he kindles a fire and bakes his bread; he even fashions it into a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

16 He burns half of it in the fire, and he roasts meat on that half. He eats the roast and is satisfied. Indeed, he warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

Read the whole chapter

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB
He cuts down cedars or retrieves a cypress or oak. He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel, and the rain makes it grow.
KJV
He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it.
WEB
He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it.
ASV
He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the holm-tree and the oak, and strengtheneth for himself one among the trees of the forest: he planteth a fir-tree, and the rain doth nourish it.
DARBY
When he heweth him down cedars, he taketh also a holm-oak and a terebinth he chooseth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth a pine, and the rain maketh [it] grow.
BLB
He cuts down for himself cedars and takes cypress and oak. And he gives strength to it among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir-tree, and the rain makes [it] grow,
ÅB
En gir seg til å felle sedrer, og han tar stenek og ek og velger seg ut et blant skogens trær; han planter en furu, og regnet får den til å vokse.
OTB
Han feller sedrer, eller kanskje tar en sypress eller eik. Han lar det vokse sterkt blant skogens trær, eller planter en furu, og regnet får det til å vokse.
B1930
En gir sig til å felle sedrer, og han tar stenek og ek og velger sig ut et blandt skogens trær; han planter en furu, og regnet får den til å vokse.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

  • Isaiah 40:20

    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?

    Read in context

  • Jeremiah 10:3–8

    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 context

  • Habakkuk 2:19

    Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ or to silent stone, ‘Arise!’ Can it give guidance? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all.”

    Read in context

  • Hosea 4:12

    My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.

    Read in context