Behold, you are less than nothing, And your work is less than nothing! He who chooses you is an abomination.
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.
- BSB Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
- NKJV Indeed you are nothing, And your work is 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 8:4Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
- Ps 115:8Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
- Isa 41:29Behold, all of them, their deeds are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
- Jer 10:8But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
- Jer 10:14Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
- Isa 44:9–10Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
- Jer 51:17–18“Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
- Isa 37:19and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
- Deut 27:15‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
- Isa 66:24“They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
- Rev 17:5And on her forehead a name was written, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
- Deut 7:26You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
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.