Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.
- KJV Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
- NKJV Indeed you are nothing, And your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.
- NASB Behold, you are less than nothing, And your work is less than nothing! He who chooses you is an abomination.
- NLT But no! You are less than nothing and can do nothing at all. Those who choose you pollute themselves.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God declares the idols to be nothing, and those who choose them an abomination.
Overview
The verdict of the trial: the idols and their works amount to nothing, and their worshipers share their detestable emptiness. Idolatry is not a harmless error but an abomination before God. This sober judgment underscores the exclusive worship due the Creator alone.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Cor 8:4So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- Ps 115:8Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- Isa 41:29See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Jer 10:14Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
- Isa 44:9–10All makers of idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their witnesses fail to see or comprehend, so they are put to shame.
- Jer 51:17–18Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols. For his molten images are a fraud, and there is no breath in them.
- Isa 37:19They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.
- Deut 27:15‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Isa 66:24“As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”
- Rev 17:5And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
- Deut 7:26And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 41:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.