Bible Strands
Isaiah 41:24
Behold, you are nothing and your work is of no value. Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses the idols, demanding they predict future events to prove their divinity. This declaration occurs during an oracle contrasting the silence of false gods with God's active raising of a conquering ruler from the north.
The words — The Hebrew מֵ/אַ֔יִן (me./'A.yin) translates literally as "from nothing," asserting the idols' nonexistence. The term תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה (to.'e.Vah) means "abomination," describing the moral and spiritual repulsion inherent in idolatry.
The thread — The text states their works amount to nothing and their images are as empty as wind in Isaiah 41:29. Paul echoes this claim in 1 Corinthians 8:4, noting that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that no other deity exists.
Why it lands — The passage states that trusting manufactured gods yields only worthless works and spiritual defilement. Readers must abandon reliance on human-made objects and recognize only the sovereign God who acts in history.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
Cross-references
- Psalms 115:8 Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So 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.
- Isaiah 41:29 See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.
- Jeremiah 10:8 But they are altogether senseless and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!
- Jeremiah 10:14 Every 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.
- Deuteronomy 7:26 And 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.
- Deuteronomy 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!’
- Isaiah 37:19 They 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.
- Isaiah 44:9 All 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.
- Isaiah 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.”