Isaiah 40:17

17 omnes gentes quasi non sint sic sunt coram eo et quasi nihilum et inane reputatae sunt ei

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 ecce gentes quasi stilla situlae et quasi momentum staterae reputatae sunt ecce insulae quasi pulvis exiguus

16 et Libanus non sufficiet ad succendendum et animalia eius non sufficient ad holocaustum

17 omnes gentes quasi non sint sic sunt coram eo et quasi nihilum et inane reputatae sunt ei

18 cui ergo similem fecistis Deum aut quam imaginem ponetis ei

19 numquid sculptile conflavit faber aut aurifex auro figuravit illud et lamminis argenteis argentarius