Isaias 40:17
All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity.
Open Isaias 40:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Omnes gentes quasi non sint, sic sunt coram eo, et quasi nihilum et inane reputatæ sunt ei.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ὡς οὐδέν εἰσι καὶ εἰς οὐθὲν ἐλογίσθησαν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כָּל הַגּוֹיִ֖ם כְּאַ֣יִן נֶגְדּ֑וֹ מֵאֶ֥פֶס וָתֹ֖הוּ נֶחְשְׁבוּ לֽוֹ
The Fathers on this verse
St Justin Martyr Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter L. It is proved from Isaiah
Then I said, “Isaiah thus foretold John’s forerunning: ‘And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which He spake: Let there be peace and righteousness in my days.’ And, ‘Encourage the people; ye priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and encourage her, because her humiliation is accomplished. Her sin is annulled; for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for her sins. A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the ways of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God. Every valley shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough way shall be plain ways; and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God: for the Lord hath spoken it. …
St Jerome Against the Pelagians, Book II
Is. xl. 17 . He doeth what He will in heaven and in earth.
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter V. Certain passages from Scripture, urged against the Omnipotence of Christ, are resolved; the writer is also at especial pains to show that Christ not seldom spoke in accordance with the affections of human nature
40. Aye, let some one show what there is that the Son of God cannot do. Who was His helper, when He made the heavens, Who, when He laid the foundations of the world? Had He any need of a helper to set men free, Who needed none in constituting angels and principalities?
Aphrahat Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations, Of Death and the Latter Times
17. And the wicked shall not arise in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous . And even as the righteous who are perfected in good works shall not come into the judgment to be judged, so of the wicked also whose sins are many, and the measure of whose offences is overflowing, it shall not be required that they should draw nigh unto the judgment, but when they have risen again they shall turn back to Sheol, as David said, The wicked shall turn back to Sheol, and all the nations that forget God. And Isaiah said, All the nations are as a drop from the bucket, and as the turning of the balance. And the isles as a grain of sand shall be cast away, and all the nations are esteemed as nothingness by Him. For destruction and the sword are they esteemed by Him . …