Isaiah 41:21-24 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 41:21-29

The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to make out the pretentions of their idols: ?Produce your cause (Isa. 41:21) and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you have to prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of your adoration.? Note, There needs no more to show the absurdity of sin than to produce the reasons that are given in defence of it, for they carry with them their own confutation. I. The idols are here challenged to bring proofs of... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:21

Produce your cause, saith the Lord ,.... The Lord having comforted his people under their afflictions and persecutions from their enemies in the first times of Christianity, returns to the controversy between him and the idolatrous Heathens, and challenges them to bring their cause into open court, and let it be publicly tried, that it may be seen on what side truth lies: bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob ; or King of saints, the true Israel of God, who acknowledge... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:22

Let them bring them forth ,.... Not their reasons, as before, but their gods; let them cause them to come nigh, let them appear in court, and speak for themselves, when their worshippers have said all they can in defence of their deity: and show us what shall happen : what shall come to pass hereafter; and by that prove their divinity; for none but God can foretell things to come with certainty; for everything else but what comes from God, by his prophets, is all conjecture, ambiguous,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:23

Show the things that are to come hereafter ,.... From henceforward to the consummation of all things: so the Targum, "show what shall come to the end;' or at the end, the end of all things; or show wonderful things, which shall be hereafter; so Jarchi interprets the word; a word like this having the signification of signs and wonders: that we may know that ye are gods ; as ye are said to be; that we may own and acknowledge you to be such, there being this clear proof of it, if it can... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:24

Behold, ye are of nothing ,.... Not as to the matter of them, for they were made of gold, silver, brass, &c.; 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"; F1 א־תאם מאין "vos minus quam nihil estis ", Junius &... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 41:21

Bring forth your strong reasons "Produce these your mighty powers" - "Let your idols come forward which you consider to be so very strong. "Hieron. in loc. I prefer this to all other interpretations of this place; and to Jerome's own translation of it, which he adds immediately after, Afferte, si quid forte habetis . "Bring it forward, if haply ye have any thing." The false gods are called upon to come forth and appear in person; and to give evident demonstration of their foreknowledge and... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 41:23

That we may be dismayed, and behold it together "Then shall we be struck at once with admiration and terror" - The word ונרא venere is written imperfectly in the Hebrew text; the Masoretes supply ה he at the end; and so it is read in twenty-two MSS. and four editions; that is, ונראה venireh , and we shall see. But the true reading seems to be ונירא venira , and we shall fear, with י yod supplied, from ירא yara . read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 41:24

Your work of naught "Your operation is less than naught" - For מאפע meepha , read מאפס meephes ; so the Chaldee and Vulgate. A manifest error of the text; compare Isaiah 40:17 . The rabbins acknowledge no such error, but say that the former word signifies the same with the latter, by a change of the two letters ס samech and ע ain . - Sal ben Melec in loc. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 41:17-29

The claims of Jehovah. The thought seems to resume the thread broken off at the beginning of the chapter. Jehovah appeals to what he has done and to what he is. I. HIS MERCIFUL DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE . The scene and state of exile is brought before us. They are dwelling in the "tents of Kedar." They are in the midst of a flourishing commercial empire; yet it is to them as a desert where no water is (cf. Psalms 63:1 ). The true desert is the soul without the sense of God's... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 41:21

Produce your cause . The nations had been told to "draw near"—to "keep silence" while God spoke—and "then to speak" ( Isaiah 41:1 ). Now the time for them to speak is come, and they are challenged to " produce " and plead "their cause." Your strong reasons; literally, your bulwarks , or defences. Saith the King of Jacob. The king and tutelary god of the nation, Israel, really holding the position that the idol-gods were regarded as holding towards the peoples that worshipped... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 41:21-29

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:21

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:22

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:23

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 41:24

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 41:21

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 41:23

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 41:24

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 41:17-29

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 41:21

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