Isaias 40:20
He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot: the skillful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not be moved.
Open Isaias 40:20 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Forte lignum et imputribile elegit ; artifex sapiens quærit quomodo statuat simulacrum, quod non moveatur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ξύλον γὰρ ἄσηπτον ἐκλέγεται τέκτων, καὶ σοφῶς ζητήσει πῶς στήσει αὐτοῦ εἰκόνα καὶ ἵνα μὴ σαλεύηται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הַֽמְסֻכָּ֣ן תְּרוּמָ֔ה עֵ֥ץ לֹֽא יִרְקַ֖ב יִבְחָ֑ר חָרָ֤שׁ חָכָם֙ יְבַקֶּשׁ ל֔וֹ לְהָכִ֥ין פֶּ֖סֶל לֹ֥א יִמּֽוֹט
Haydock's commentary
Wood. Hebrew hamsuccan, (Haydock) which Septuagint, Chaldean, and St. Jerome explain of a sort of wood used for idols. Moderns take it to be "a rich," or rather "a poor man. He who is mean in his offering, chooses wood that," &c. (Calmet) (Protestants)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Arnobius The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen. (Adversus Gentes.), Chapter XIV
14. We would here, as if all nations on the earth were present, make one speech, and pour into the ears of them all, words which should be heard in common: Why, pray, is this, O men! that of your own accord you cheat and deceive yourselves by voluntary blindness? Dispel the darkness now, and, returning to the light of the mind, look more closely and see what that is which is going on, if only you retain your right, and are not beyond the reach of the reason and prudence given to you. Those images which fill you with terror, and which you adore prostrate upon the ground in all the temples, are bones, stones, brass, silver, gold, clay, wood taken from a tree, or glue mixed with gypsum. …