Isaias 40:23
He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity.
Open Isaias 40:23 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- qui dat secretorum scrutatores quasi non sint, judices terræ velut inane fecit.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὁ διδοὺς ἄρχοντας ὡς οὐδὲν ἄρχειν, τὴν δὲ γῆν ὡς οὐδὲν ἐποίησεν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הַנּוֹתֵ֥ן רוֹזְנִ֖ים לְאָ֑יִן שֹׁ֥פְטֵי אֶ֖רֶץ כַּתֹּ֥הוּ עָשָֽׂה
Haydock's commentary
Searchers. Hebrew, "princes to nothing." (Protestants)
Philosophers know nothing independently of God, nor can they subsist without him. (Worthington)
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
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily IV
Having then drawn the conclusion which he had in view, and brought down their pride, and said, “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” he states also the reason why these things were so done. “For seeing that in the wisdom of God,” saith he, “the world through its wisdom knew not God,” the Cross appeared. Now what means, “in the wisdom of God?” The wisdom apparent in those works whereby it was His will to make Himself known. For to this end did he frame them, and frame them such as they are, that by a sort of proportion, ( ἀναλόγως ) from the things which are seen admiration of the Maker might be learned. Is the heaven great, and the earth boundless? Wonder then at Him who made them. For this heaven, great as it is, not only was made by Him, but made with ease; and that boundless earth, too, was brought into being even as if it had been nothing. …