以赛亚书 40:20

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

貧窮獻不起這供物的，就揀選不朽壞的樹木，為自己尋找巧匠，立起不會動搖的偶像。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
穷 乏 献 不 起 这 样 供 物 的 ， 就 拣 选 不 能 朽 坏 的 树 木 ， 为 自 己 寻 找 巧 匠 ， 立 起 不 能 摇 动 的 偶 像 。

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ Can you compare God to anything? Can you compare him to an image of anything? ¹⁹ An idol is formed by a craftsman, and a goldsmith covers it with gold and makes silver chains for it. ²⁰ A poor person cannot buy those expensive statues, so he finds a tree that will not rot. Then he finds a skilled craftsman to make it into an idol that will not fall over. ²¹ Surely you know. Surely you have heard. Surely from the beginning someone told you. Surely you understand how the earth was created. ²² God sits on his throne above the circle of the earth, and compared to him, people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the skies like a piece of cloth and spreads them out like a tent to sit under. ²³ He makes rulers unimportant and the judges of this world worth nothing. ²⁴ They are like plants that are placed in the ground, like seeds that are planted. As soon as they begin to grow strong, he blows on them and they die, and the wind blows them away like chaff. ²⁵ God, the Holy One, says, "Can you compare me to anyone? Is anyone equal to me?" ²⁶ Look up to the skies. Who created all these stars? He leads out the army of heaven one by one and calls all the stars by name. Because he is strong and powerful, not one of them is missing.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

is so impoverished that he hath no oblation: Heb. is poor of oblation

chooseth: Isaiah 2:8, Isaiah 2:9, Isaiah 44:13-19, Jeremiah 10:3, Jeremiah 10:4, Daniel 5:23

shall not: Isaiah 41:7, Isaiah 46:7, 1 Samuel 5:3, 1 Samuel 5:4

Reciprocal: Exodus 32:3 - General Psalms 115:4 - Their idols Psalms 135:15 - idols Isaiah 44:14 - heweth Isaiah 46:6 - lavish Daniel 5:4 - of gold Revelation 9:20 - and idols

Cross-References

Genesis 21:8
Isaac grew, and when he became old enough to eat food, Abraham gave a great feast.

Genesis 40:1
After these things happened, two of the king's officers displeased the king—the man who served wine to the king and the king's baker.

Genesis 40:2
The king became angry with his officer who served him wine and his baker,

Genesis 40:13
Before the end of three days the king will free you, and he will allow you to return to your work. You will serve the king his wine just as you did before.

Genesis 40:19
Before the end of three days, the king will cut off your head! He will hang your body on a pole, and the birds will eat your flesh."

Genesis 40:23
but the officer who served wine did not remember Joseph. He forgot all about him.

2 Kings 25:27
Jehoiachin king of Judah was held in Babylon for thirty-seven years. In the thirty-seventh year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, and he let Jehoiachin out of prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.

Esther 1:3
In the third year of his rule, he gave a banquet for all his important men and royal officers. The army leaders from the countries of Persia and Media and the important men from all Xerxes' empire were there.

Job 3:1
After seven days Job cried out and cursed the day he had been born,

Matthew 14:6
On Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced for Herod and his guests, and she pleased him.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation,.... Who is so poor that he cannot bring an offering to his God, yet he will have one; and though he cannot purchase a golden or silver one, or one that is gilt, and adorned with either; yet he will have a wooden one, as follows. Some render it, "he that is set over the oblation", which Aben Ezra mentions; that was over the treasury, where the oblations were; the Heathen priest, whose business it was from thence to procure idols to worship. Jerom takes the word מסכן to be the name of a tree that will not rot; and so the Targum renders it,

"he cuts down an ash:''

but the word is descriptive of an idol worshipper; and, according to Gussetius x, signifies one that by custom and repeated acts has got skill in such things; and so Jarchi: hence

he chooseth a tree that will not rot: he goes to the forest, and chooses the best tree for his purpose he can find, even one that will not rot, as the cypress; and though he cannot get an idol made of metal, but is forced to have one of wood, yet he will get the best he can, that will last longest, an incorruptible deity, as he fancies:

he seeketh unto him a cunning workman, to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved: having decided upon his tree, and what sort of wood to make his god of, he looks out for an ingenious carpenter and carver, a good workman, to make it in the form of an image, and grave, or rather carve it, in the best manner he can, and then fasten it in a proper place, that it may not fall; a poor helpless deity, that cannot secure itself, and much less be of any service to its worshippers.

x Ebr Comment. p. 558.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He that is so impoverished - So poor. So it is generally supposed that the word used here is to be understood, though interpreters have not been entirely agreed in regard to its signification. The Septuagint renders the phrase, ‘The carpenter chooseth a sound piece of wood.’ The Chaldee. ‘He cuts down an ash, a tree which will not rot.’ Vulgate, ‘Perhaps he chooses a tree which is incorruptible.’ Jarchi renders it, ‘He who is accustomed to examine, and to judge between the wood which is durable, and other wood.’ But the signification of the word (from סכן sâkan, “to dwell, to be familiar with anyone”) given to it by our translators, is probably the correct one, that of being too poor to make a costly oblation. This notion of poverty, Gesenius supposes, is derived from the notion of being seated; and thence of sinking down from languor or debility; and hence, from poverty or want.

That he hath no oblation - No offering; no sacrifice; no rich gift. He is too poor to make such an offering to his god as would be implied in an idol of brass or other metal, richly overlaid with plates of gold, and decorated with silver chains. In Isaiah 40:19, the design seems to have been to describe the more rich and costly idols that were made; in this, to describe those that were made by the poor who were unable to offer such as were made of brass and gold. The word ‘oblation,’ therefore, that is, offering, in this place, does not denote an offering made to the true God, but an offering made to an idol, such as an image was regarded to be. He could not afford a rich offering, and was constrained to make one of wood.

Chooseth a tree that will not rot - Wood that will be durable and permanent. Perhaps the idea is, that as he could not afford one of metal, he would choose that which would be the most valuable which he could make - a piece of wood that was durable, and that would thus show his regard for the god that he worshipped. Or possibly the sense may be, that he designed it should not be moved; that he expressed a fixed and settled determination to adhere to the worship of the idol; and that as he had no idea of changing his religion, the permanency and durability of the wood would be regarded as a somewhat more acceptable expression of his worship.

A cunning workman - Hebrew, ‘A wise artificer;’ a man skilled in the art of carving, and of making images.

A graven image - An image engraved or cut from wood, in contradistinction from one that is molten or made from metals.

That shall not be moved - That shall stand long, as the expression of his devotion to the service of the idol. The wood that was commonly employed for this purpose as being most durable, as we learn from Isaiah 44:14, was the cedar, the cypress, or the oak (see the note in that place). The phrase, ‘shall not be moved,’ does not refer so much to its being fixed in one place, as to its durability and permanency.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 40:20. Chooseth a tree that will not rot — For what? To make a god out of it! The rich we find made theirs of gold and silver; the poor man was obliged to put up with a wooden god! From the words "he that hath no oblation chooseth a tree," we may learn that the gold and silver necessary to make the graven image was first dedicated, and then formed into a god! How stupid is idolatry! Strange that these people did not perceive that there could be no help in these molten and wooden idols!