Isaiah 40:20 · Bible study
Isaiah 40:20 Commentary: The Idolater's Careful Futility
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Isaiah describes a poor man who selects a durable tree and hires a skilled craftsman to make an idol that won't fall, exposing the absurdity of trusting in what humans can make
Research Summary
- Meaning: Even the poor, unable to afford a metal idol, still invests in a durable wood and a skilled carver to produce a god that cannot move, exposing the absurdity of all idolatry.
- Key words: masukkan (impoverished/sunk), ba.char (choose deliberately), pe.sel (idol), lo' yimmot (will not be shaken, Niphal of mot).
- Main debate: Whether masukkan means “poor” (most commentators) or “overseer of the offering” (Aben Ezra, cited by Gill); the overall satirical intention is universally agreed.
- Theological theme: The futility of all human attempts to manufacture God, the Creator cannot be captured in any material or craft.
- Best use: A vivid sermon illustration of misplaced trust and the freedom of serving a God who does not need to be kept upright.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
To one bereft of an offering who chooses wood that will not rot, who seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple?
WEB World English Bible 2000
He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.
KJV King James Version 1769
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.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
He that is too impoverished for such an oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilful workman to set up a graven image, that shall not be moved.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
He who is poor by heave-offerings, A tree not rotten doth choose, A skilful artisan he seeketh for it, To establish a graven image--not moved.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
He that is impoverished, so that he hath no offering, chooseth a tree that doth not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilled workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot: the skilful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not be moved.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
El pobre escoge, para ofrecerle, madera que no se corrompa; búscase un maestro sabio, que le haga una imagen de talla que no se mueva.
O empobrecido, que não tem o que oferecer, escolhe madeira que não se estraga, e busca um artífice habilidoso, para preparar uma imagem que não se mova.
Celui que la pauvreté oblige à donner peu
Desgleichen wer nur eine arme Gabe vermag, der wählt ein Holz, das nicht fault, und sucht einen klugen Meister dazu, der ein Bild fertige, das beständig sei.
Die verarmd is, dat hij niet te offeren heeft, die kiest een hout uit, dat niet verrotte; hij zoekt zich een wijzen werkmeester, om een beeld te bereiden, dat niet wankele.
Colui che la povertà costrinse ad offrir poco sceglie un legno che non marcisca, e si procura un abile artista, che metta su un idolo che non si smova.
A ten, który dla ubóstwa nie ma co ofiarować, obiera drzewo, któreby nie próchniało, i rzemieślnika umiejętnego sobie szuka, aby wygotował bałwana rytego, któryby się nie poruszył.
А кто беден для такого приношения, выбирает негниющее дерево, приискивает себе искусного художника, чтобы сделать идола, который стоял бы твердо.
窮乏 獻不起這樣供物的，就揀選 不能 朽壞 的樹木，為自己 尋找 巧 匠，立起 不能 搖動 的偶像。
The wise workman makes selection of the mulberry-tree of the offering, a wood which will not become soft; so that the image may be fixed to it and not be moved.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Isaiah 40:20
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree this verse completes the idolatry satire begun in v.19. Barnes and Calvin note that the wealthy made gods of gold and silver, but even the poor, Hebrew ha.m.su.Kan, “impoverished, sunk in circumstances” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown), insists on having a god. He selects a tree that will not rot (cedar, cypress, oak per Barnes and Matthew Henry) and hires a ḥarash ḥakham, a wise craftsman, to carve an image that will not totter. Keil and Delitzsch point out the irony: a wooden image needing to be planed and weighted to stay upright is being prepared as an object of worship. The Cambridge Bible calls this a “weak parody of Eternity.” Calvin stresses that no class is guiltless; the poor are as condemned as the rich. The consensus: human care and expense are lavished on something utterly powerless, exposing the blindness of idolatry.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The verse exposes the absurdity of idolatry: human beings invest great care and resources in something they themselves make and that cannot help them.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of 'impoverished' (masukkan) | The word describes someone who cannot afford costly materials for an idol. Most interpreters understand it as 'poor' in financial terms. | A minority reading (Aben Ezra, noted by Gill) takes it as 'the overseer of the offering', a priest who manages temple oblations. The debate centers on a rare Hebrew root. |
| Socio-economic range of the critique | All traditions agree that both rich (v.19) and poor (v.20) are implicated in idolatry. | Some commentators focus on the poor's desperation as a tragic irony; others emphasize the democratization of guilt across all classes. |
| Purpose of the technical detail | The description of choosing wood and hiring a craftsman is a deliberate satirical technique to expose the absurdity of making a god. | A few older interpreters (e.g., Jarchi) saw it as a straightforward description of ancient worship practices; most modern readers treat it as ironic hyperbole. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Isaiah 40 opens the second half of the book, shifting from judgment to comfort for exiles. Verses 18, 20 form a sustained polemic against comparing God with anything made by human hands. In the ancient Near East, making an idol was an elaborate process. The wealthy commissioned metal images overlaid with gold and adorned with silver chains (v.19). The poor, unable to afford such costly materials, turned to wood. They chose durable species like cedar, cypress or oak, which resist rot, a practical concern for an object meant to be permanent. Then they sought a “skillful workman” (the same Hebrew word ḥarash used for carpenters in Isaiah 44:13) to carve an image that would stand without toppling.
The surrounding context underscores the absurdity. Verses 22, 24 contrast God’s incomparable power: He “sits above the circle of the earth” and “brings princes to nothing.” The idol that must be propped up and fastened so it “will not be moved” (the Niphal of mot, to shake or totter) is a pathetic counterpart. The cross-reference to 1 Samuel 5:3, 4 confirms the ridicule: Dagon falls before Yahweh’s ark and cannot get up. Isaiah piles up the irony: the same wood that could be used for fuel (44:19) is turned into a god. The prophet does not argue abstractly, he paints a picture of anxious human labor expended on a thing that can neither move nor save.
Textual Notes
The Hebrew word masukkan (translated “impoverished”) is rare and appears only in Deuteronomy 8:9 outside this passage. The Septuagint may have read a different word (ὁμοίωμα, “likeness”), as the Cambridge Bible notes, and the Targum interprets it as a kind of tree (“he cuts down a laurel”). Jerome recorded a tradition that masukkan was a durable wood name. Despite these ambiguities, the Masoretic Text is stable, and no variant alters the verse’s central thrust: the absurdity of making a god from carefully selected timber.
Reception History
From the early church onward, this verse was used to censure pagan image-making. The Reformers, especially Calvin in his commentary, applied it to any trust in human religious devices, not just bowing to statues. Matthew Henry, Wesley and Gill each employed the image of a poverty-stricken man carving his own powerless god to warn against spiritual idolatry in more subtle forms: trusting in ritual, money or reputation as though they could secure life. In modern preaching, Isaiah 40:20 remains a vivid prompt to examine what we prop up with our time and resources, and to release those props in favor of the God who needs none.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The poverty of idolatry. Even the poor must have a god, they will scrape together resources for a substitute instead of trusting the true God.
- The misplaced care. The chooser searches for rot-resistant wood; the craftsman is engaged for stability. The very care points to the idol’s helplessness.
- The contrast with God. The God of Isaiah 40 needs no prop, no craftsman, no durable material. He is eternal, self-sufficient and sovereign.
Five-point outline
- Impoverished yet unwilling to be without a god.
- Selecting a tree that will not rot, the best material the poor can afford.
- Seeking a skilled workman to carve and shape the wood.
- Preparing an idol that will not shake or fall.
- The resulting absurdity: a god made by human hands, dependent on human effort to stay upright.
Illustration hooks
- A person spends hours researching the best insurance policy, then locks the document in a safe, but what they really need is a safety that no policy can provide.
- The gardener who props up a dying houseplant with stakes and ties, hoping it will revive, when the root has already rotted.
- Someone invests heavily in a lucky charm or ritual for peace of mind, yet anxiety remains.
Questions your congregation is asking
- If I cannot afford the “top-shelf” version of faith, big church, lots of giving, does God still want me?
- Why do we sometimes work so hard to keep our spiritual lives stable, as if God needs our help?
- What are the “wooden idols” in my life that I prop up but that cannot actually save?
Leading a Discussion
Isaiah 40:20 sits in a passage that contrasts the incomparable God with man-made images. As you open your group, consider how easy it is to invest effort in things that promise security but cannot deliver. The poor man in this verse is not malicious, he is desperate for a god he can see and handle. Where do we do the same? Let the irony of the passage lead you not to shame, but to freedom: God does not need our props, and He alone is worthy of trust.
Discussion questions
- Read Isaiah 40:18, 20. What is the prophet’s main point in this unit?
- The word “impoverished” (Hebrew masukkan) means literally “sunk.” How does poverty affect the kind of idol someone makes? What might this say about our own idols?
- Why does the man choose a tree that will not rot? What does that care reveal about his intentions?
- Look at 1 Samuel 5:3, 4. How does the story of Dagon reinforce Isaiah’s critique?
- In what ways do we “prop up” things in our lives, careers, relationships, possessions, as if they could give ultimate security?
- How does the character of God described in verses 21, 26 free us from the need to create and maintain our own gods?
- What would it look like to stop “working” to keep your faith stable and instead rest in the God who is already steady?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| I Samuel 5:3 | When the people of Ashdod arose early on the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark. They took Dagon and set him in his place again. |
| I Samuel 5:4 | When they arose early on the following morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before Yahweh’s ark; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold. Only Dagon’s torso was intact. |
| Isaiah 2:8 | Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. |
| Isaiah 2:9 | Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them. |
| Isaiah 41:7 | So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good;” and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter. |
| Isaiah 44:13 | The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. |
| Isaiah 44:19 | No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?” |
| Isaiah 46:7 | They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer. It cannot save him out of his trouble. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
11 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke points out the striking absurdity: the poor man with nothing to offer still finds a tree that will not rot and carves it into a god, while the rich use gold and silver. He marvels that anyone could fail to see that these man-made idols are utterly helpless.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes argues that this verse describes a poor person who cannot afford a costly idol of metal overlaid with gold. Such a person chooses a durable wood instead, hoping the lasting material will show devotion and a fixed commitment to the idol's worship.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin sees idolatry as a misguided hunger for God's presence itself, a good desire perverted into a wrong method. God is present not through any crafted object but through his Word and Spirit, so even the poor who use durable wood are as foolish as the rich with gold.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentator stresses that the prophet's question exposes a universal human error, not just a Jewish one: the belief that the divine can be represented by anything made by human hands. The argument parallels Paul's address to the Athenians, showing how absurd it is to think the Godhead resembles gold, silver, or stone crafted by human skill.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The poor man carefully chooses a wood that will not rot and hires a skilled craftsman to make an image that will not topple. Yet this remarkable care only underscores the folly of trusting in something man-made that remains utterly motionless and powerless.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill highlights the absurd
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
impoverished —literally, "sunk" in circumstances. no oblation — he who cannot afford to overlay his idol with gold and silver ( Isa 40:19 ). tree . . . not rot —the cedar, cypress, oak, or ash ( Isa 44:14 ). graven —of wood; not a molten one of metal. not be moved —that shall be durable.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch draws out the inherent irony: a poor man, unable to afford a proper offering, has a wooden idol carved and carefully weighted so it does not topple over. The very need to stabilize the image underscores its powerlessness, which the commentator treats as a self-evident satire of idolatry.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange's distinctive point is that the repeated "comfort ye" is not merely emotional but a deliberate rhetorical pattern signaling that this word is spoken to an ideal, perfected church, not to the immediate historical audience. He argues the triple structure of imperatives and calls reveals God's comfort as timeless and artistically framed.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry identifies two distinct sins in this passage: making images that claim to represent God, and treating any creature as if it could rival him. The repeated challenge to compare anything to God exposes both errors—changing his glory into shame and putting something else in his place.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley highlights the irrational obsession of idolatry: a person who cannot even afford a proper sacrifice will still scrape together money for the finest materials and craftsman to make an idol. Yet for all that expense, the image cannot even take a single step to help its maker.