Isaiah 41:24

24 Look! you [are] nothing, and your work [is] something worthless; whoever chooses you [is] an abomination.

Isaiah 41:24 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 41:24

Behold, ye are of nothing
Not as to the matter of them, for they were made of gold, silver, brass but as to the divinity of them: there was none in them, they were of no worth and value; they could do nothing, either good or evil, either help their friends, or hurt their enemies; yea, they were less than nothing; for the words may be rendered by way of comparison, "behold, ye are less than nothing"; {a}. (See Gill on Isaiah 40:17); and your work of nought;
the workmanship bestowed on them, in casting or carving them, was all to no purpose, and answered no end; or the work they did, or pretended to do, their feigned oracles, and false predictions: or, "worse than nothing": some render it, "worse than a viper" ^F2; a word like this is used for one, ( Isaiah 49:5 ) and so denotes the poisonous and pernicious effects of idolatry: an abomination is he that chooseth you;
as the object of his worship; he is not only abominable, but an abomination itself to God, and to all men of sense and religion; for the choice he makes of an idol to be his god shows him to be a man void of common sense and reason, and destitute of all true religion and godliness, and must be a stupid sottish creature. The Targum is,

``an abomination is that which ye have chosen for yourselves, or in which ye delight;''

meaning their idols. This is the final issue of the controversy, and the judgment passed both upon the idols and their worshippers.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Nyam Mta) "vos minus quam nihil [estis]", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F2 (epam) "pejus [opere] viperae", Junius & Tremellius; "pejus [est opere] basilisci", Piscator.

Isaiah 41:24 In-Context

22 Let them bring [them], and let them tell us what will happen. Tell us what the former things [are] {so that} we may take [them to] our heart and know their outcome. Declare to us the things to come;

23 tell [us] the things coming {hereafter}, that we may know that you [are] gods. Indeed, do good or do evil, that we may be afraid and see together.

24 Look! you [are] nothing, and your work [is] something worthless; whoever chooses you [is] an abomination.

25 I stirred up [one] from [the] north, and he has come from [the] rising of the sun. He shall call on my name, and he shall come [on] officials as [on] mortar, and as [the] {potter} treads clay.

26 Who declared [it] from [the] {beginning} {so that} we might know, and {beforehand} {so that} we might say, "[He is] {right}!" Indeed, there was no one who declared [it]; Indeed, there was no one who proclaimed [it]. Indeed there was no one who heard your words.