Isaiah 41:29

Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) They are all . . . their works . . .—The first pronoun refers to the idols themselves, the second to the idolaters who make them. In “confusion” we have the familiar tohu.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

41:21-29 There needs no more to show the folly of sin, than to bring to notice the reasons given in defence of it. There is nothing in idols worthy of regard. They are less than nothing, and worse than nothing. Let the advocates of other doctrines than that of salvation through Christ, bring their arguments. Can they tell of a cure for human depravity? Jehovah has power which cannot be withstood; this he will make appear. But the certain knowledge of the future must be only with Jehovah, who fulfils his own plans. All prophecies, except those of the Bible, have been uncertain. In the work of redemption the Lord showed himself much more than in the release of the Jews from Babylon. The good tidings the Lord will send in the gospel, is a mystery hid from ages and generations. A Deliverer is raised up for us, of nobler name and greater power than the deliverer of the captive Jews. May we be numbered among his obedient servants and faithful friends.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, they are all vanity - They are unable to predict future events; they are unable to defend their friends, or to injure their enemies. This is the conclusion of the trial or debate (notes, Isaiah 41:1), and that conclusion is, that they were utterly destitute of strength, and that they were entirely unworthy of confidence and regard.

Their molten images - (See the note at Isaiah 40:19).

Are wind - Have no solidity or power. The doctrine of the whole chapter is, that confidence should be reposed in God, and in him alone. He is the friend of his people, and he is able to protect them. He will deliver them from the hand of all their enemies; and he will be always their God, protector, and guide. The idols of the pagan have no power; and it is folly, as well as sin, to trust in them, or to suppose that they can aid their friend.

It may be added, also, that it is equally vain to trust in any being for salvation but God. He only is able to protect and defend us; and it is a source of unspeakable consolation now, as it was in times past, that he is the friend of his people; and that, in times of deepest darkness and distress, he can raise up deliverers, as he did Cyrus, and will in his own way and time rescue his people from all their calamities.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. confusion—"emptiness" [Barnes].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They are all vanity: this is the conclusion of the whole dispute, and the just sentence which God passeth upon idols after a fair trial; they are vain things, and are falsely called gods. Their works are nothing: see Isaiah 41:24.

Their molten images; which he mentions, because their materials were most precious, and more cost and art was commonly bestowed upon them; for after they had been molten, they used to be carved, or polished, and adorned: but under these he synecdochichally comprehends all images whatsoever.

Are wind; empty and unsatisfying things, which also, like the wind, do quickly pass away, and come to nothing. And confusion; confused, and deformed, and useless things, like that rude heap in the beginning of God’s creation, of which this very word is used, Genesis 1:2.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Behold, they are all vanity,.... Both the idols and the worshippers of them; in vain they claim the title of deity, to which they have no right; and in vain do men worship them, since they receive no benefit by them:

their works are nothing; they can do nothing, neither good nor evil; nothing is to be hoped or feared from them, and the worship given them is of no avail; nothing is got by it; it is all useless and insignificant, yea, pernicious and harmful:

their molten images are wind and confusion: though they are made of cast metal, yet setting aside the costly matter of which they are made, they are of no more solidity, efficacy, and use, than the wind; and are like the chaos of the first earth, mere "tohu" and "bohu", one of which words is here used, without form and void, having no form of deity on them; and therefore men are directed to turn themselves from them, and behold a most glorious Person, worthy of worship and praise, described in the beginning of the next chapter, "behold my servant", &c.

Geneva Study Bible

Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. The last word of the argument.

all of them (R.V.)] idols and worshippers together.

their works] are the images of the gods, “the work of men’s hands” (parallel to “molten images” below).

confusion] “nothingness”—chaos (see ch. Isaiah 40:17).

Isaiah 41:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This closing declaration of Jehovah terminates with similar words of wrath and contempt to those with which the judicial process ended in Isaiah 41:24. "See them all, vanity; nothingness are their productions, wind and desolation their molten images." מעשׂיהם are not the works of the idols, but, as the parallel shows, the productions (plural, as in Ezekiel 6:6; Jeremiah 1:16) of the idolaters - in other words, the idols themselves - a parallel expression to נסכּיהם (from נסך, as in Isaiah 48:5 equals massēkhâh, Isaiah 42:17). אפס און is an emotional asyndeton (Ges. 155, 1, a). The address is thus rounded off by returning to the idolaters, with whom it first started. The first part, vv. 1-24, contains the judicial pleadings; the second part, Isaiah 41:25., recapitulates the evidence and the verdict.