Isaiah 44:9-20
New English Translation
9 All who form idols are nothing;
the things in which they delight are worthless.
Their witnesses cannot see;
they recognize nothing, so they are put to shame.
10 Who forms a god and casts an idol
that will prove worthless?[a]
11 Look, all his associates[b] will be put to shame;
the craftsmen are mere humans.[c]
Let them all assemble and take their stand.
They will panic and be put to shame.
12 A blacksmith works with his tool[d]
and forges metal over the coals.
He forms it[e] with hammers;
he makes it with his strong arm.
He gets hungry and loses his energy;[f]
he drinks no water and gets tired.
13 A carpenter takes measurements;[g]
he marks out an outline of its form;[h]
he scrapes[i] it with chisels,
and marks it with a compass.
He patterns it after the human form,[j]
like a well-built human being,
and puts it in a shrine.[k]
14 He cuts down cedars
and acquires a cypress[l] or an oak.
He gets[m] trees from the forest;
he plants a cedar[n] and the rain makes it grow.
15 A man uses it to make a fire;[o]
he takes some of it and warms himself.
Yes, he kindles a fire and bakes bread.
Then he makes a god and worships it;
he makes an idol and bows down to it.[p]
16 Half of it he burns in the fire—
over that half he cooks[q] meat;
he roasts a meal and fills himself.
Yes, he warms himself and says,
‘Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.’
17 With the rest of it he makes a god, his idol;
he bows down to it and worships it.
He prays to it, saying,
‘Rescue me, for you are my god!’
18 They do not comprehend or understand,
for their eyes are blind and cannot see;
their minds do not discern.[r]
19 No one thinks to himself,
nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:
‘I burned half of it in the fire—
yes, I baked bread over the coals;
I roasted meat and ate it.
With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?
Should I bow down to dry wood?’[s]
20 He feeds on ashes;[t]
his deceived mind misleads him.
He cannot rescue himself,
nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’[u]
Notas al pie
- Isaiah 44:10 tn The rhetorical question is sarcastic. The sense is, “Who is foolish enough…?”
- Isaiah 44:11 tn The pronoun “his” probably refers to the one who forms/casts an idol (v. 10), in which case it refers to the craftsman’s associates in the idol-manufacturing guild.
- Isaiah 44:11 sn The point seems to be this: if the idols are the mere products of human hands, then those who trust in them will be disappointed, for man-made gods are incapable of helping their “creators.”
- Isaiah 44:12 tn The noun מַעֲצָד (maʿatsad), which refers to some type of tool used for cutting, occurs only here and in Jer 10:3. See HALOT 615 s.v. מַעֲצָד.
- Isaiah 44:12 tn Some English versions take the pronoun “it” to refer to an idol being fashioned by the blacksmith (cf. NIV, NCV, CEV). NLT understands the referent to be “a sharp tool,” which is then used by the carpenter in the following verse to carve an idol from wood.
- Isaiah 44:12 tn Heb “and there is no strength”; NASB “his strength fails.”
- Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “stretches out a line” (ASV similar); NIV “measures with a line.”
- Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “he makes an outline with the [?].” The noun שֶׂרֶד (shered) occurs only here; it apparently refers to some type of tool or marker. Cf. KJV “with a line”; ASV “with a pencil”; NAB, NRSV “with a stylus”; NASB “with red chalk”; NIV “with a marker.”
- Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “works” (so NASB) or “fashions” (so NRSV); NIV “he roughs it out.”
- Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “he makes it like the pattern of a man”; NAB “like a man in appearance.”
- Isaiah 44:13 tn Heb “like the glory of man to sit [in] a house”; NIV “that it may dwell in a shrine.”
- Isaiah 44:14 tn It is not certain what type of tree this otherwise unattested noun refers to. Cf. ASV “a holm-tree” (NRSV similar).
- Isaiah 44:14 tn Heb “strengthens for himself,” i.e., “secures for himself” (see BDB 55 s.v. אָמֵץ Pi.2).
- Isaiah 44:14 tn Some prefer to emend אֹרֶן (ʾoren) to אֶרֶז (ʾerez, “cedar”), but the otherwise unattested noun appears to have an Akkadian cognate, meaning “cedar.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 44-45. HALOT 90 s.v. I אֹרֶן offers the meaning “laurel.”
- Isaiah 44:15 tn Heb “and it becomes burning [i.e., firewood] for a man”; NAB “to serve man for fuel.”
- Isaiah 44:15 tn Or perhaps, “them.”
- Isaiah 44:16 tn Heb “eats” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV “roasts.”
- Isaiah 44:18 tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”
- Isaiah 44:19 tn There is no formal interrogative sign here, but the context seems to indicate these are rhetorical questions. See GKC 473 §150.a.
- Isaiah 44:20 tn Or perhaps, “he eats on an ash heap.”
- Isaiah 44:20 tn Heb “Is it not a lie in my right hand?”
Isaiah 44:9-20
Expanded Bible
Idols Are Useless
9 Some people make idols, but they are ·worth nothing [nothing; void].
People treasure them, but they are ·useless [worthless].
Those people are witnesses for the statues, but those people cannot see.
They know nothing, so they will be ·ashamed [put to shame; C idolmakers are as ignorant as their idols].
10 Who makes a god or ·shapes [casts; molds] an idol
that can do nothing for him?
11 [L Look; T Behold] ·The workmen who made them [L All his compansions] will be ·ashamed [put to shame],
because ·they [L the craftsmen] are only human.
If they all would come together to stand against me,
they would all be ·afraid [terrified] and ·ashamed [put to shame].
12 One ·workman [blacksmith] uses tools to heat iron,
and he works over hot coals.
With his hammer he beats the metal and makes a statue,
using his powerful arms.
But when he becomes hungry, he loses his ·power [strength].
If he does not drink water, he becomes tired.
13 ·Another workman [A carpenter/craftsman] ·uses a line and a compass [L stretches a line]
to draw on the wood.
Then he uses his chisels to cut a statue
and his ·calipers [compass] to measure the statue.
In this way, the workman makes the wood ·look exactly like a person [like the pattern of a man],
and this statue of a person ·sits [or dwells] in ·the house [or a shrine].
14 He cuts down cedars
or cypress or oak trees.
·Those trees grew by their own power in [or He secures it for himself from] the forest.
Or he plants a pine tree, and the rain makes it grow.
15 Then he burns the tree.
He uses some of the wood for a fire to keep himself warm.
He also starts a fire to bake his bread.
But he uses part of the wood to make a god, and then he worships it!
He makes the idol and bows down to it [C showing the absurdity of worshiping an idol made from the same material he burns]!
16 The man burns half of the wood in the fire.
He uses the fire to cook his meat,
and he eats the meat until he is full.
He also burns the wood to keep himself warm. He says,
“Good! Now I am warm. ·I can see because of the fire’s light [or …as I watch the fire; L I have seen the fire].”
17 But he makes a statue from the wood that is left and calls it his god.
He bows down to it and worships it.
He prays to it and says,
“You are my god. ·Save [Rescue] me!”
18 Those people ·don’t know what they are doing [or know nothing]. They ·don’t understand [are ignorant]!
·It is as if their eyes are covered [or They shut their eyes] so they can’t see.
Their minds don’t understand.
19 ·They have not thought about these things [No one considers];
they don’t understand.
They have never thought to themselves,
“I burned half of the wood in the fire
and used the hot coals to bake my bread.
I cooked and ate my meat.
·And I used the wood that [or Should I use what…?] was left to make this ·hateful [abominable; detestable] thing.
·I am worshiping [or Should I bow down to…?] a block of wood!”
20 He ·doesn’t know what he is doing [L feeds on ashes; or eats on a pile of ashes];
his ·confused mind [deluded/deceived heart] leads him ·the wrong way [astray].
He cannot ·save [rescue; T deliver] himself
or say, “·This statue I am holding is a false god [L Is there not a lie in my right hand?].”
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.
The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.