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:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Their land also is full of idols.—The word which Isaiah chooses for “idols” (elîlîm—i.e., vain, false, gods) seems intentionally contrasted with elîm (gods, or mighty ones), and may fairly be rendered by no-gods. The reign of Ahaz was conspicuous from the first for this cultus (2Chronicles 28:2-3), but it had been prominent even under Jotham (2Chronicles 27:2).

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 2:8-9. Their land also is full of idols — Every city had its god, (Jeremiah 11:13,) and, according to the goodness and fertility of their lands, they made goodly images, Hosea 10:1. They worship the work of their own hands — They gave that worship to their own creatures, to the images which their own fancies had devised, and their own fingers had made, which they denied to JEHOVAH their Creator, than which nothing could be more impious or more absurd. And the mean man boweth down, &c. — Men of all ranks, both high and low, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, fall down and worship idols. The corruption is universal, and the whole land is given to idolatry. Therefore forgive them not — Thou wilt not forgive them, the imperative being put for the future, as we have seen it frequently is in the Psalms. Vitringa, however, Dr. Waterland, and Bishop Lowth, with many others, consider this verse, not as describing their idolatry, but as a predicting the punishment which God was about to bring upon them for it; and therefore translate it, in perfect consistency with the Hebrew, in the future tense, thus: Therefore the mean man shall be bowed down, and the mighty man shall be humbled; and thou wilt not forgive them. “They bowed themselves down to their idols, therefore shall they be bowed down, and brought low, under the avenging hand of God.” — Bishop Lowth. According to this interpretation, “the prophet begins here to describe the imminent severe judgments of God, wherewith he would punish the pride of these men, and their alienation from the true worship of God and their disobedience to his law.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-9 The calling of the Gentiles, the spread of the gospel, and that far more extensive preaching of it yet to come, are foretold. Let Christians strengthen one another, and support one another. It is God who teaches his people, by his word and Spirit. Christ promotes peace, as well as holiness. If all men were real Christians, there could be no war; but nothing answering to these expressions has yet taken place on the earth. Whatever others do, let us walk in the light of this peace. Let us remember that when true religion flourishes, men delight in going up to the house of the Lord, and in urging others to accompany them. Those are in danger who please themselves with strangers to God; for we soon learn to follow the ways of persons whose company we keep. It is not having silver and gold, horses and chariots, that displeases God, but depending upon them, as if we could not be safe, and easy, and happy without them, and could not but be so with them. Sin is a disgrace to the poorest and the lowest. And though lands called Christian are not full of idols, in the literal sense, are they not full of idolized riches? and are not men so busy about their gains and indulgences, that the Lord, his truths, and precepts, are forgotten or despised?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Their land also is full of idols - compare Hosea 8:4; Hosea 10:1. Vitringa supposes that Isaiah here refers to idols that were kept in private houses, as Uzziah and Jotham were worshippers of the true God, and in their reign idolatry was not publicly practiced. It is certain, however, that though Uzziah himself did right, and was disposed to worship the true God, yet he did not effectually remove idolatry from the land. The high places were not removed, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on them; 2 Kings 15:4. It was customary with the pagan to keep in their houses "Penates or household gods" - small images, which they regarded as "protectors," and to which they paid homage: compare Genesis 30:19; Judges 17:5; 1 Samuel 19:13; Hosea 3:4. 'This is a true and literal description of India. The traveler cannot proceed a "mile" through an inhabited country without seeing idols, and vestiges of idolatry in every direction. See their vessles, their implements of husbandry, their houses, their furniture, their ornaments, their sacred trees, their "domestic" and public temples; and they all declare that the land is full of idols.' - "Roberts."

The work of their own hands ... - Idols. It is often brought as proof of their great folly and degradation that they paid homage to what "they" had themselves made. See this severely satirized in Isaiah 40:18-20; Isaiah 41:6-7; Isaiah 44:9-17.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. (Ho 8:4). Not so much public idolatry, which was not sanctioned in Uzziah's and Jotham's reign, but (see 2Ki 15:4, 35) as private.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They give that worship to their own creatures which they deny to me their Creator, than which nothing can be more impious and absurd.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Their land also is full of idols,.... Of the Virgin Mary, and of saints departed, whose images are set up to be worshipped in all their churches, and had in private houses:

and they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made; namely, idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone, Revelation 9:20.

Geneva Study Bible

Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. idols] Lit. “nonentities.”—The word (’ělîlîm) is almost peculiar to Isaiah; and appears to contain a scornful play on the word for “gods” (’êlîm). work of their own hands] The prophet refuses to distinguish, as a heathen might, between the false deity and his image; the latter alone has real existence. Cf. Hosea 13:2; Isaiah 40:19 f., Isaiah 41:7; Isaiah 44:12-20, &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Full of idols. The historians declare that both Uzziah and Jotham maintained the worship of Jehovah and disallowed idolatry (2 Kings 15:3, 34; 2 Chronicles 26:4; 2 Chronicles 27:2), so that we must regard the idol-worship of the time as an irregular and private practice. (It is, perhaps, alluded to in 2 Chronicles 27:2; and the fact of its prevalence is stated in Amos 2:1; Micah 5:13.) Perhaps Bishop Lowth is right in regarding it as mainly a continuation of the old private teraphim worship ('Notes,' p. 25). Isaiah 2:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In Isaiah 2:7, Isaiah 2:8 he describes still further how the land of the people of Jehovah, in consequence of all this (on the future consec. see Ges. 129, 2, a), was crammed full of objects of luxury, of self-confidence, of estrangement from God: "And their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end of their treasures; and their land is filled with horses, and there is no end of their chariots. And their land is filled with - idols; the work of their own hands they worship, that which their own fingers have made." The glory of Solomon, which revived under Uzziah's fifty-two years' reign, and was sustained through Jotham's reign of sixteen years, carried with it the curse of the law; for the law of the king, in Deuteronomy 17:14., prohibited the multiplying of horses, and also the accumulation of gold and silver. Standing armies, and stores of national treasures, like everything else which ministers to carnal self-reliance, were opposed to the spirit of the theocracy. Nevertheless Judaea was immeasurably full of such seductions to apostasy; and not of those alone, but also of things which plainly revealed it, viz., of elilim, idols (the same word is used in Leviticus 19:4; Leviticus 26:1, from elil, vain or worthless; it is therefore equivalent to "not-gods"). They worshipped the work of "their own" hands, what "their own" fingers had made: two distributive singulars, as in Isaiah 5:23, the hands and fingers of every individual (vid., Micah 5:12-13, where the idols are classified). The condition of the land, therefore, was not only opposed to the law of the king, but at variance with the decalogue also. The existing glory was the most offensive caricature of the glory promised to the nation; for the people, whose God was one day to become the desire and salvation of all nations, had exchanged Him for the idols of the nations, and was vying with them in the appropriation of heathen religion and customs.