Go
Articles on

Isaiah 40

Isa. 40:17 KJV (With Strong’s)

+
17
All nations
gowy (Hebrew #1471)
apparently from the same root as 1465 (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (figuratively) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts
KJV usage: Gentile, heathen, nation, people.
Pronounce: go'-ee
Origin: rarely (shortened) goy {go'-ee}
before him are ash nothing; and they are counted
chashab (Hebrew #2803)
properly, to plait or interpenetrate, i.e. (literally) to weave or (gen.) to fabricate; figuratively, to plot or contrive (usually in a malicious sense); hence (from the mental effort) to think, regard, value, compute
KJV usage: (make) account (of), conceive, consider, count, cunning (man, work, workman), devise, esteem, find out, forecast, hold, imagine, impute, invent, be like, mean, purpose, reckon(-ing be made), regard, think.
Pronounce: khaw-shab'
Origin: a primitive root
to him less thani nothing
'ephec (Hebrew #657)
cessation, i.e. an end (especially of the earth); often used adverb, no further; also (like 6466) the ankle (in the dual), as being the extremity of the leg or foot
KJV usage: ankle, but (only), end, howbeit, less than nothing, nevertheless (where), no, none (beside), not (any, -withstanding), thing of nought, save(-ing), there, uttermost part, want, without (cause).
Pronounce: eh'-fes
Origin: from 656
, and vanity
tohuw (Hebrew #8414)
a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert; figuratively, a worthless thing; adverbially, in vain
KJV usage: confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.
Pronounce: to'-hoo
Origin: from an unused root meaning to lie waste
.
h
Dan. 4:35• 35And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? (Dan. 4:35)
i
Psa. 62:9• 9Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. (Psa. 62:9)

Cross References

+

Ministry on This Verse

+
as nothing.
Job 25:6• 6How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm? (Job 25:6)
;
Psa. 62:9• 9Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. (Psa. 62:9)
;
Dan. 4:34‑35• 34And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:
 35And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? (Dan. 4:34‑35)
;
2 Cor. 12:11• 11I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. (2 Cor. 12:11)
• The nations that look so imposing and threatening to us, are counted by Him as “less than nothing, and vanity.” It is good for us to measure them by God’s standards and not by our own. (“Isaiah 40:9-45:14” by F.B. Hole)

J. N. Darby Translation

+
17
All the nations are as nothing before him; they are esteemed by him less than a cipher, and vanitya.

JND Translation Notes

+
a
Lit. "empty" or "desolate waste"; so also ver. 23 and elsewhere; see ch. 34.11.