Isaiah 40:19 - Exposition

The workman melteth a graven image ; rather, the workman casteth an image (comp. Isaiah 41:7 ; Isaiah 44:9-17 ; Isaiah 46:6 , Isaiah 46:7 ). Israel's tendency to idolatry has been touched on in the earlier prophecies once or twice ( Isaiah 2:8 , Isaiah 2:20 ; Isaiah 31:7 ); but in the later chapters idolatry is assailed with a frequency, a pungency, and a vigour that are new, and that imply a change, either in the prophet's circumstances or in his standpoint. Perhaps it is enough to suppose that, placing himself ideally among the captives, Isaiah sees that the Babylonian idolatry will be, or at any rate may be, a snare to them, and provides an antidote against the subtle poison. The special antidote which he employs is ridicule, and the first ground of his ridicule is the genesis or formation of an image. It is made by man himself, out of known material substances. Either a figure is cast in some inferior metal, and then coated with gold and finished with the graving tool, or a mere block of wood is taken and cut into shape. Can it be supposed that such things are "likenesses" of God, or that he is comparable to them? Casteth silver chains ; as ornaments to be worn by the images, which were often dressed (see Thucyd; Isaiah 2:13 ; Baruch 6:9-12).