Isaiah 17:8

And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
look	יִשְׁעֶ֔ה yish.'Eh	H8159	to gaze at or about (properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
altars	הַֽמִּזְבְּח֖וֹת ha.miz.be.Chot	H4196	an altar · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
work	מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה ma.'a.Seh	H4639	an action (good or bad) · noun, common masculine singular construct
hands	יָדָ֑יו ya.Dav	H3027	a hand (the open one (indicating power · noun, common both genders dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
respect	יִרְאֶ֔ה yir.'Eh	H7200	to see · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fingers	אֶצְבְּעֹתָיו֙ 'etz.be.'o.Tav	H676	something to sieze with · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
made	עָשׂ֤וּ 'a.Su	H6213	to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
groves	וְהָאֲשֵׁרִ֖ים ve.ha.'a.she.Rim	H842	Asherah (or Astarte) a Phoenician goddess · conjunction + definite article + noun, masculine plural absolute
images	וְהָחַמָּנִֽים ve.ha.cha.ma.Nim	H2553	a sun-pillar · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Isaiah 30:22 Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away a…
Isaiah 27:9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of th…
Isaiah 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
Micah 5:13-14 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine ha…
Exodus 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
2 Chronicles 14:5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.
2 Chronicles 34:4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the…
2 Chronicles 34:6-7 And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 17:6-8

Mercy is here reserved, in a parenthesis, in the midst of judgment, for a remnant that should escape the common ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes. Though the Assyrians took all the care they could that none should slip out of their net, yet the meek of the earth were hidden in the day of the Lord's anger, and had their lives given them for a prey and made comfortable to them by their retirement to the land of Judah, where they had the liberty of God's courts. 1. They shall be but a small remnant, a very few, who shall be marked for preservation (Isa 17:6): Gleaning grapes shall be left in it. The body of the people were carried into captivity, but here and there one was left behind, perh…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 17:8

groves--A symbolical tree is often found in Assyrian inscriptions, representing the hosts of heaven ("Saba"), answering to Ashteroth or Astarte, the queen of heaven, as Baal or Bel is the king. Hence the expression, "image of the grove," is explained (Kg2 21:7). images--literally, "images to the sun," that is, to Baal, who answers to the sun, as Astarte to the hosts of heaven (Kg2 23:5; Job 31:26).

John Gill on Isaiah 17:8

And he shall not took to the altars, the work of his hands,.... That is, to altars erected to the worship of idols, which are both the works of men's hands, so as to serve at them, and sacrifice upon them. Kimchi observes, that the latter clause is not to be understood as belonging to the former, but as distinct from it, and signifies idols which men have made; otherwise all altars, even the altars of God, were the works of men, which yet it was right to look unto, and offer sacrifice upon; but idol altars, and idols themselves, are here meant: and a good man will not look unto his good works as altars to atone for sin; he knows that nothing that a creature can do can expiate sin; that his b…

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John Calvin on Isaiah 17:8

The Church Fathers

Those who trust in idols are foolish. Idols are their own creations, things they made with their own hands, but they turn around and say, "These idols are our creators." How can these people say that something they made is their creator? Moreover, they guard their idols, so that they will not be stolen by thieves. What foolishness! If idols cannot guard and protect themselves, how can they guard and save others?
— John Damascene, BARLAAM AND JOSEPH 10

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Idol — (1.) Heb. aven, “nothingness;” “vanity” (Isa. 66:3; 41:29; Deut. 32:21; 1 Kings 16:13; Ps. 31:6; Jer. 8:19, etc.). (2.) ‘Elil, “a thing of naught” (Ps. 97:7; Isa. 19:3); a word of contempt, used of…
Groves · Forbid — Forbid
Israel, Prophecies Concerning · .Of — .Of

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Isaiah 17:8

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 17:6-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 17:8

John Gill on Isaiah 17:8

John Calvin on Isaiah 17:8

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 17:8

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 17:6-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 17:8

John Gill on Isaiah 17:8

John Calvin on Isaiah 17:8

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 17:4-8

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 17:8

Rashi on Isaiah 17:8