41:24 Look, you are nothing, and your accomplishments are nonexistent;
the one who chooses to worship you is disgusting. 1
41:29 Look, all of them are nothing, 2
their accomplishments are nonexistent;
their metal images lack any real substance. 3
40:17 All the nations are insignificant before him;
they are regarded as absolutely nothing. 4
4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. 5
He does as he wishes with the army of heaven
and with those who inhabit the earth.
No one slaps 6 his hand
and says to him, ‘What have you done?’
1 tn Heb “an object of disgust [is he who] chooses you.”
2 tc The Hebrew text has אָוֶן (’aven, “deception,” i.e., “false”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has אין (“nothing”), which forms a better parallel with אֶפֶס (’efes, “nothing”) in the next line. See also 40:17 and 41:12.
3 tn Heb “their statues are wind and nothing”; NASB “wind and emptiness”; NIV “wind and confusion.”
4 tn Heb “[as derived] from nothing and unformed.”
5 tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew
6 tn Aram “strikes against.”