Isaiah 40:17

17 All folks be so before him, as if they be not; and they be reckoned as nothing and (as a) vain thing to him. (All the nations before him, be as if they be not; and they be reckoned as if they be nothing, yea, but like an empty and futile thing to him.)

Isaiah 40:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 40:17

All nations before him are as nothing
As if they were nonentities, and were not real beings in comparison of him, who is the Being of beings, the author of all beings which exist in all nations; who are all in his sight, and are not only as grasshoppers, as is after mentioned, but even as nothing: and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and vanity;
if there is or could be such a thing less than nothing, that they are; and so they are accounted of by him; they are like the chaos out of which the earth was formed, when it was "tohu" and "bohu", the first of which words is used here; this serves to humble the pride of men, and to lessen the glory of the nations, and the inhabitants of them.

Isaiah 40:17 In-Context

15 Lo! folks be as a drop of a bucket, and be areckoned as the tongue of a balance; lo! isles be as a little dust, (Lo! the nations be like a drop from a bucket, and be reckoned like the tongue of a balance; lo! the islands weigh but like a little dust,)

16 and the Lebanon shall not suffice to burn his sacrifice, and the beasts thereof shall not suffice to (a) burnt sacrifice. (and even all the mighty trees of Lebanon shall not suffice to burn his sacrifice, and even all its beasts shall not suffice for a burnt sacrifice.)

17 All folks be so before him, as if they be not; and they be reckoned as nothing and (as a) vain thing to him. (All the nations before him, be as if they be not; and they be reckoned as if they be nothing, yea, but like an empty and futile thing to him.)

18 To whom therefore made ye God like? either what image shall ye set to him (for comparison)?

19 Whether a smith shall weld together an image, either a goldsmith shall figure it in gold, and a worker in silver shall dight it with pieces of silver?