Isaiah 2:8

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁶For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east; they are soothsayers like the Philistines; they strike hands with the children of foreigners. ⁷Their land is full of silver and gold, with no limit to their treasures; their land is full of horses, with no limit to their chariots. ⁸Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.⁹So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled-do not forgive them!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

is full: Isaiah 57:5, 2 Chronicles 27:2, 2 Chronicles 28:2-4, 2 Chronicles 28:23-25, 2 Chronicles 33:3-7, Jeremiah 2:28, Jeremiah 11:13, Ezekiel 16:23-25, Hosea 12:11, Acts 17:16

worship: Isaiah 37:19, Isaiah 44:15-20, Deuteronomy 4:28, Psalms 115:4-8, Hosea 8:6, Hosea 13:2, Hosea 14:3, Revelation 9:20

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 16:7 - with the work 2 Kings 22:17 - the works 2 Chronicles 9:28 - brought 2 Chronicles 32:19 - the work 2 Chronicles 34:25 - Because Isaiah 17:8 - the work Isaiah 40:20 - chooseth Isaiah 46:6 - they fall Jeremiah 1:16 - worshipped Micah 5:13 - no Acts 7:41 - rejoiced

Cross-References

Genesis 2:8
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.

Genesis 2:9
Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:24
So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 4:16
So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Genesis 13:10
And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

2 Kings 19:12
Did the gods of the nations my fathers have destroyed rescue them-the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and of the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

Isaiah 51:3
For the LORD will comfort Zion and look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.

Ezekiel 27:23
Haran, Canneh, and Eden, and the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad traded with you.

Ezekiel 28:13
You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every kind of precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald. Your mountings and settings were crafted in gold, prepared on the day of your creation.

Ezekiel 31:16
I made the nations quake at the sound of its downfall, when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend to the Pit. Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all the well-watered trees, were consoled in the earth below.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Their land also is full of idols,.... Of the Virgin Mary, and of saints departed, whose images are set up to be worshipped in all their churches, and had in private houses:

and they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made; namely, idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone, Revelation 9:20.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Their land also is full of idols - compare Hosea 8:4; Hosea 10:1. Vitringa supposes that Isaiah here refers to idols that were kept in private houses, as Uzziah and Jotham were worshippers of the true God, and in their reign idolatry was not publicly practiced. It is certain, however, that though Uzziah himself did right, and was disposed to worship the true God, yet he did not effectually remove idolatry from the land. The high places were not removed, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on them; 2 Kings 15:4. It was customary with the pagan to keep in their houses “Penates or household gods” - small images, which they regarded as “protectors,” and to which they paid homage: compare Genesis 30:19; Jdg 17:5; 1 Samuel 19:13; Hosea 3:4. ‘This is a true and literal description of India. The traveler cannot proceed a “mile” through an inhabited country without seeing idols, and vestiges of idolatry in every direction. See their vessles, their implements of husbandry, their houses, their furniture, their ornaments, their sacred trees, their “domestic” and public temples; and they all declare that the land is full of idols.’ - “Roberts.”

The work of their own hands ... - Idols. It is often brought as proof of their great folly and degradation that they paid homage to what “they” had themselves made. See this severely satirized in Isaiah 40:18-20; Isaiah 41:6-7; Isaiah 44:9-17.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 2:8. Their land also is full of idols - "And his land is filled with idols"] Uzziah and Fotham are both said, 2 Kings 15:3-4; 2 Kings 15:34-35, "to have done that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" that is, to have adhered to and maintained the legal worship of God, in opposition to idolatry and all irregular worship; for to this sense the meaning of that phrase is commonly to be restrained; "save that the high places were not removed where the people still sacrificed and burned incense." There was hardly any time when they were quite free from this irregular and unlawful practice, which they seem to have looked upon as very consistent with the true worship of God; and which seems in some measure to have been tolerated, while the tabernacle was removed from place to place, and before the temple was built. Even after the conversion of Manasseh, when he had removed the strange gods, commanded Judah to serve JEHOVAH the God of Israel, it is added, "Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still on the high places, yet unto JEHOVAH their God only," 2 Chronicles 33:17. The worshipping on the high places therefore does not necessarily imply idolatry; and from what is said of these two kings, Uzziah and Jotham, we may presume that the public exercise of idolatrous worship was not permitted in their time. The idols therefore here spoken of must have been such as were designed for a private and secret use. Such probably were the teraphim so often mentioned in Scripture; a kind of household gods, of human form, as it should seem, (see 1 Samuel 19:13, and compare Genesis 31:34,) of different magnitude, used for idolatrous and superstitious purposes, particularly for divination, and as oracles, which they consulted for direction in their affairs.