Isaiah 42:17

17 Removed backward -- utterly ashamed, Are those trusting in a graven image, Those saying to a molten image, `Ye [are] our gods.'

Isaiah 42:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 42:17

They shall be turned back
Either from their former course, from their idolatry and their idols, and be converted, and turn to the living God; or it may be understood of such Gentiles as were not converted, when others were, who should be put to flight, and should fly to the rocks and mountains to hide and cover them from the wrath of God; for this phrase is used of the overthrow of enemies, of their being obliged to turn their backs and flee: they shall be greatly ashamed that trust in graven images;
as converted persons when they come to be convinced of the folly of their idolatrous practices are; and if not converted, yet are confounded when they find their idols cannot help and assist them, nor deliver them out of their trouble: that say to the molten images, ye are our gods;
as the Israelites did to the molten calf made by Aaron; and the stupidity of the one and the other is much alike; this of the Gentiles, and that of the Israelites.

Isaiah 42:17 In-Context

15 I make waste mountains and hills, And all their herbs I dry up, And I have made rivers become isles, And ponds I dry up.
16 And I have caused the blind to go, In a way they have not known, In paths they have not known I cause them to tread, I make a dark place before them become light, And unlevelled places become a plain, These [are] the things I have done to them, And I have not forsaken them.
17 Removed backward -- utterly ashamed, Are those trusting in a graven image, Those saying to a molten image, `Ye [are] our gods.'
18 Ye deaf, hear; and ye blind, look to see.
19 Who [is] blind but My servant? And deaf as My messenger I send? Who [is] blind as he who is at peace, Yea, blind, as the servant of Jehovah?
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.