Isaiah 40:23

Which giveth the searchers of privates, as if they be not, and [he] made the judges of [the] earth as a vain thing. (Who bringeth down the great, as if they be nothing, and who made the judges, or the rulers, of the earth but like an empty and futile thing to him.)

Wycliffe Modern Spelling

In The King James Version

That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

In Context

22Which sitteth on the compass of [the] earth, and the dwellers thereof be as locusts; which stretcheth forth heavens as nought, and spreadeth abroad those as a tabernacle to dwell (in). (It is he who sitteth above, or over, the roundness of the earth, and its inhabitants be like grasshoppers; it is he who stretcheth forth the heavens like a curtain, and spreadeth them abroad like a tent to live in.)

24And soothly when the stock of them is neither planted, neither is sown, neither is rooted in [the] earth, he blew suddenly on them, and they dried up, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. (And truly when their stock is neither planted, nor is sown, nor is rooted in the earth, he shall suddenly blow on them, and they shall all be dried up, and then a whirlwind shall take them away like stubble.)

Read all of Isaiah 40

Cross References

Job 12:19He leadeth their priests without glory, and he deceiveth the principal men;

Job 34:19He accepteth not the persons of princes (or He favoureth not princes, or rulers), neither he knoweth a tyrant to spare him, when he striveth against a poor man; for all men be the work of his hands.

Psalms 76:12and to him that taketh away the spirit of princes; to the fearedful at the kings of earth. (to him who breaketh the spirit of princes, or of the leaders; to him who is feared by all the kings of the earth.)

Isaiah 2:11The eyes of an high man (shall) be made low, and the highness of men shall be bowed down; forsooth the Lord alone shall be enhanced in that day (or for only the Lord shall be exalted on that day).

Isaiah 19:13The princes of Tanis be made fools; the princes of Memphis faded; they deceived Egypt, a corner (stone) of the peoples thereof. (The leaders of Zoan be made fools; the leaders of Noph faded away; they deceived Egypt, yea, the chieftains of the peoples there.)

Isaiah 24:21And it shall be, in that day the Lord shall visit on the knighthood of heaven on high, and on the kings of (the) earth, that be on earth. (And it shall be, on that day the Lord shall punish the host of heaven on high, and the kings of the earth, who be on the earth.)

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 40:19-27

Vanity of Idols. ( b. c. 708.) 18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? 19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. 20 He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved. 21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from… Read the whole commentary →

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