span--the space from the end of the thumb to the end of the middle finger extended; God measures the vast heavens as one would measure a small object with his span.
dust of the earth--All the earth is to Him but as a few grains of dust contained in a small measure (literally, "the third part of a larger measure").
hills in a balance--adjusted in their right proportions and places, as exactly as if He had weighed them out.
13. Quoted in [Ro 11:34]; [1Co 2:16]. The Hebrew here for "directed" is the same as in [Is 40:12] for "meted out"; thus the sense is, "Jehovah measures out heaven with His span"; but who can measure Him? that is, Who can search out His Spirit (mind) wherewith He searches out and accurately adjusts all things? Maurer rightly takes the Hebrew in the same sense as in [Is 40:12] (so [Pr 16:2]; ), "weigh," "ponder." "Direct," as in English Version, answers, however, better to "taught" in the parallel clause.
14. path of judgment--His wisdom, whereby He so beautifully adjusts the places and proportions of all created things.
15. of--rather, (hanging) from a bucket [Maurer].
he taketh up ... as a very little thing--rather, "are as a mere grain of dust which is taken up," namely, by the wind; literally, "one taketh up," impersonally ([Ex 16:14]) [Maurer].
isles--rather, "lands" in general, answering to "the nations" in the parallel clause; perhaps lands, like Mesopotamia, enclosed by rivers [Jerome] (so [Is 42:15]). However, English Version, "isles" answers well to "mountains" ([Is 40:12]), both alike being lifted up by the power of God; in fact, "isles" are mountains upheaved from the bed of the sea by volcanic agency; only that he seems here to have passed from unintelligent creatures ([Is 40:12]) to intelligent, as nations and lands, that is, their inhabitants.
16. All Lebanon's forest would not supply fuel enough to burn sacrifices worthy of the glory of God ([Is 66:1]; [1Ki 8:27]; [Psa 50:8-13]).
beasts--which abounded in Lebanon.
17. ([Psa 62:9]; [Da 4:35]).
less than nothing--Maurer translates, as in [Is 41:24], "of nothing" (partitively; or expressive of the nature of a thing), a mere nothing.
vanity--emptiness.
18. Which of the heathen idols, then, is to be compared to this Almighty God? This passage, if not written (as Barnes thinks) so late as the idolatrous times of Manasseh, has at least a prospective warning reference to them and subsequent reigns; the result of the chastisement of Jewish idolatry in the Babylonish captivity was that thenceforth after the restoration the Jews never fell into it. Perhaps these prophecies here may have tended to that result (see [2Ki 23:26], ).
19. graven--rather, an image in general; for it is incongruous to say "melteth" (that is, casts out of metal) a graven image (that is, one of carved wood); so [Jr 10:14], "molten image."
spreadeth it over--(See on [Is 30:22]).
chains--an ornament lavishly worn by rich Orientals ([Is 3:18], ), and so transferred to their idols. Egyptian relics show that idols were suspended in houses by chains.
20. impoverished--literally, "sunk" in circumstances.
no oblation--he who cannot afford to overlay his idol with gold and silver ([Is 40:19]).
tree ... not rot--the cedar, cypress, oak, or ash ([Is 44:14]).
graven--of wood; not a molten one of metal.
not be moved--that shall be durable.
21. ye--who worship idols. The question emphatically implies, they had known.
from the beginning--([Is 41:4], ; ). God is the beginning ([Re 1:8]). The tradition handed down from the very first, of the creation of all things by God at the beginning, ought to convince you of His omnipotence and of the folly of idolatry.
22. It is he--rather, connected with last verse, "Have ye not known?"--have ye not understood Him that sitteth ...? ([Is 40:26]) [Maurer].
circle--applicable to the globular form of the earth, above which, and the vault of sky around it, He sits. For "upon" translate "above."
as grasshoppers--or locusts in His sight ([Nu 13:33]), as He looks down from on high ([Psa 33:13], ; [113:4-6]).
curtain--referring to the awning which the Orientals draw over the open court in the center of their houses as a shelter in rain or hot weather.
23. ([Psa 107:4]; [Da 2:21]).
judges--that is, rulers; for these exercised judicial authority ([Psa 2:10]). The Hebrew, shophtee, answers to the Carthaginian chief magistrates, suffetes.
24. they--the "princes and judges" ([Is 40:23]) who oppose God's purposes and God's people. Often compared to tall trees ([Psa 37:35]; [Da 4:10]).
not ... sown--the seed, that is, race shall become extinct ([Na 1:14]).
stock--not even shall any shoots spring up from the stump when the tree has been cut down: no descendants whatever ([Job 14:7]; see on [Is 11:1]).
and ... also--so the Septuagint. But Maurer translates, "They are hardly (literally, 'not yet', as in [2Ki 20:4]) planted (&c.) when He (God) blows upon them."
blow--The image is from the hot east wind (simoon) that "withers" vegetation.
whirlwind ... stubble--([Psa 83:13]), where, "like a wheel," refers to the rotatory action of the whirlwind on the stubble.
25. (Compare [Is 40:18]).
26. bringeth out ... host--image from a general reviewing his army: He is Lord of Sabaoth, the heavenly hosts ([Job 38:32]).
calleth ... by names--numerous as the stars are. God knows each in all its distinguishing characteristics--a sense which "name" often bears in Scripture; so in [Ge 2:19], 20, Adam, as God's vicegerent, called the beasts by name, that is, characterized them by their several qualities, which, indeed, He has imparted.
by the greatness ... faileth--rather, "by reason of abundance of (their inner essential) force and firmness of strength, not one of them is driven astray"; referring to the sufficiency of the physical forces with which He has endowed the heavenly bodies, to prevent all disorder in their motions [Horsley]. In English Version the sense is, "He has endowed them with their peculiar attributes ('names') by the greatness of His might," and the power of His strength (the better rendering, instead of, "for that He is strong").
27. Since these things are so, thou hast no reason to think that thine interest ("way," that is, condition, [Psa 37:5]; [Jr 12:1]) is disregarded by God.
judgment is passed over from--rather, "My cause is neglected by my God; He passes by my case in my bondage and distress without noticing it."
my God--who especially might be expected to care for me.
28. known--by thine own observation and reading of Scripture.
heard--from tradition of the fathers.