Isaiah 40:21

Isa 40:21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Ver. 21. Have ye not known? have ye not heard?] Both Jews and Gentiles went against the light; the former of the word, the latter of their own consciences, in thus "changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible creature." {Rom 1:23} Their ignorance was wilful and affected; some render this text, "Will ye not know? will ye not hear?" Idolaters are brutish and blockish; they that make them are like unto them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa_40:21

Have ye not known?

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Isaiahs questions

His sharp questions are as hooks to draw from his hearers hearts their timid and starved convictions, that he may nourish these upon the sacramental glories of nature and of history. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 40:21-24. Have ye not known — Jehovah to be the only true God, the Maker and Governor of the world, and all its inhabitants? How can ye be ignorant of so evident a truth? He addresses his speech to the idolatrous Gentiles; from the beginning — Namely, of the world, as the next clause explains it: were not these infinite perfections of God manifestly discovered to all mankind, by the creation of the world? It is he that sitteth — As a judge or governor upon his throne; upon, or rather, above, the circle of the earth — Far above this round earth, even in the highest heavens; from whence he looketh down upon the earth, where men appear to him like grasshoppers. As here we have the circle of the earth, so elsewhere we read of the circle of heaven, Job 22:14, and of the circle of the deep, or sea, Pro 8:27, because the form of the heaven, and earth, and sea, is circular. Spreadeth them out as a tent — For the benefit of the earth and of mankind, that all parts might partake of their comfortable influences. That bringeth the princes to nothing — Who can, at his pleasure, destroy all the great potentates of the world. Yea, they — The princes and judges last mentioned; shall not be planted, &c. — They shall take no root, for planting and sowing are in order to taking root. They shall not continue and flourish, as they have vainly imagined, but shall be rooted up, and perish.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

40:21 Idolaters fail to discern who God is or to respond wisely to him. The godly in Israel would understand and see the hand of God in the unfolding story of redemption, which includes both exile and restoration (41:20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Can you not learn by the visible creatures whom God hath made to observe your use, that you should not serve them nor worship them?

Have ye not the word of God, which plainly condemneth idolatry?

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

ye--who worship idols. The question emphatically implies, they had known.

from the beginning-- (Isa 41:4, Isa 41:26; Isa 48:16). God is the beginning (Rev 1:8). The tradition handed down from the very first, of the creation of all things by God at the beginning, ought to convince you of His omnipotence and of the folly of idolatry.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 21. Have ye not known] On this verse Kimchi has a very interesting comment, an extract of which I subjoin. "The whole world may be considered as a house built up; heaven its roof; the stars its lamps; and the fruits of the earth its table spread. The Master of the house is God, blessed for ever; and man is the steward into whose hand all the business of the house is given. If he always consider in his heart that the Master of the house is continually over him, and that he keeps his eye upon his work, and if in consequence he acts wisely, he shall find favour in the eyes of the Master of the house. But if he find wickedness in the house, then will he remove him מן פקידתו min pekidutho, 'from his stewardship.' The foolish steward does not think of this; for as his eyes do not see the Master of the house, he saith in his heart, 'I will eat and drink what I find in this house, and will take my pleasure in it; nor shall I be careful whether there be a master over this house or not.' When the Lord of the house marks this, he comes and expels him from the house speedily, and with great anger; therefore it is said, Isa 40:23, He bringeth the princes to nothing." It seems that this parable had been long in use among the Jews, as our blessed Lord alludes to it in his parable of the unjust steward. Or did the rabbin, finding it to his purpose, steal the parable from the Gospel? In both places it has great and peculiar beauties.

Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth - "Have ye not understood it from the foundations of the earth?"] The true reading seems to be ממוסדות mimmosedoth, to answer to מראש merosh in the foregoing line. It follows a word ending with מ mem, and out of three mems concurring, it was an easy mistake to drop the middle one.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(21) Have ye not known? . . .—Strictly speaking, the first two verbs are potential futures: Can ye not know . . . We note that the prophet appeals to the primary intuitions of mankind, or, at least, to a primitive revelation, rather than to the commandments of the Decalogue. (Comp. Rom_1:20; Psa_19:4.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21. The next section (21–26) again commences with a series of questions driving home the force of the whole previous argument. The appeal seems to be still to mankind at large.

have ye not heard? Rather: Do ye not know? Do ye not hear? The two avenues by which the knowledge of God reaches the mind are reflexion on the facts of nature and history, and external testimony.

told you from the beginning) i.e. from the beginning of the world, by an unbroken tradition.

from the foundations] The preposition “from” might easily have been accidentally omitted in the Heb. The LXX., indeed, and other Versions take “foundations” as obj. to “understood.” The parallelism seems to require the phrase to be taken in a temporal sense (cf. Rom_1:20). but there is no other case where the word has the sense of fundatio (properly, = fundamenta).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have ye not known? This is the speech of the prophet, directed to the idolaters, appealing to their own natural knowledge, who, from the light of nature, might know that idols were nothing, had no divinity in them: that it is God that made the earth and governs the world, and who only ought to be worshipped:

have ye not heard? by tradition from the ancients, from your forefathers, who received it from theirs, and have delivered it to you:

hath it not been told you from the beginning? from the beginning of your states and kingdoms, and even from the beginning of the world, by the wisest and best of men that have been in it, that those things are true before related, and what follow:

have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? the being of God, the invisible things of him, his eternal power and Godhead, from the things that are made, even from his founding of the earth; as well as such knowledge and understanding has been as early as that, and might be continued from it: or,

have ye not understood the foundations of the earth (y)? what the earth is founded upon, and who laid the foundations of it; no other than that divine Being described in the next words.

(y) "nonne intelligetis fundamenta terrae?" Pagninus, Montanus; "annon intellexistis?" Vatablus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Have ye not known? - This is evidently an address to the worshippers of idols, and either designed to be addressed to the Jews themselves in the times of Manasseh, when idolatry abounded, or to all idolaters. The prophet had in the previous verses shown the manner in which the idols were made, and the folly of regarding them as objects of worship. He now turns and addresses the worshippers of these idols, as being without excuse. They might have known that these were not the true God. They had had abundant opportunity of learning his existence and of becoming acquainted with his majesty and glory. Tradition had informed them of this, and the creation of the earth demonstrated his greatness and power. The prophet, therefore, asks them whether they had not known this? Whether their conduct was the result of ignorance? And the question implies emphatically that they had known, or had abundant opportunity to know of the existence and majesty of God. This was emphatically true of the Jews, and yet they were constantly falling into idolatrous worship.

From the beginning - Hebrew, ‘From the head,’ that is, from the very commencement of the world. Has it not been communicated by tradition, from age to age, that there is one God, and that he is the Creator and upholder of all things? This was particularly the case with the Jews, who had had this knowledge from the very commencement of their history, and they were, therefore, entirely without excuse in their tendencies to idolatry.

From the foundations of the earth - Have you not learned the existence and greatness of God from the fact that the world has been made, and that it demonstrates the existence and perfection of God? The sacred writers often speak of the earth as resting on a foundation, as upheld, etc.:

For he hath founded it upon the seas,

And established it upon the floods.

(Psa 24:2; see also Pro 8:29) Perhaps here, however, the word ‘foundation’ refers rather to the time than to the manner in which the earth is made, and corresponds to the phrase ‘from the beginning;’ and the sense may be, ‘Has it not been understood ever since the earth was founded? Has not the tradition of the existence and perfections of God been unbroken and constant?’ The argument is, that the existence and greatness of God were fully known by tradition and by his works; and that it was absurd to attempt to form an image of that God who had laid the foundations of the world.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Beginning, by the light of nature, and (Worthington) has not Moses declared that God alone created the world? (Haydock) --- His power and goodness herein convince us that he will not deny grace. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Have ye not known, to wit, God to be the only true God, the Maker and Governor of the world, and all its inhabitants? how can you be ignorant of so evident a truth? He addresseth his speech to the idolatrous Gentiles.

From the beginning, to wit, of the world, as the next clause explains it. Were not these infinite perfections of God manifestly discovered to all mankind by the creation of the world?

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

21. Such absurdities fit only for the sharpest sarcasm.

Have ye not known… heard… from the beginning? — Addressed to those still inclined, among the doubters, to idolatry, and equivalent to saying to them, “Ye know better, and why are you guilty of such consummate folly?” Of the four verbs of this verse, the first two are, in the Hebrew, future, the second two in the past tense. The former imply what is possible, the latter what is fact. Have ye not known and heard, what has always been possible to know from reason and conscience, (Rom_1:19-20; Rom_2:13,) that only the infinite God can create worlds? “From the beginning” this has been set before the eyes of all men.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have ye not known? Hitherto the prophet has restrained himself, and confined himself to quiet sarcasm. Now he bursts out. Is there any one so insensate, so devoid of natural reason and understanding, as not to know what has been known to all from the beginning yea, from the foundations of the earth by "the light that is in them," viz. that God is something wholly different from this? that he is such a One as the prophet proceeds to describe in vers. 22-24, alike above nature and above man, Lord of heaven and earth, and absolute Disposer of the fates of all men? Hath it not been told you? If ye have not known the nature of God by the light of nature, has it not come down to you by tradition? Have not your fathers told it you? Has it not been handed on by sire to son from the very foundation of the earth? The appeal is to men generally, not especially to Israel. Have ye not understood, etc.? Some omit the preposition after "understood," and render the passage thus: "Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth?" i.e. how it was founded, or created that its creation was God"s sole act? (so the LXX, the Vulgate, Gesenius, Hitzig, Delitzsch, Knobel, Kay; but Ewald, Henderson, Weir, and Mr. Cheyne prefer the rendering of the Authorized Version).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Known - God to be the only true God, the maker and governor of the world.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Having thus depicted in a few strokes the infatuation of idolatry, the prophet addresses the following question to such of the Israelites as are looking at it with longing eye, even if they have not already been deluded by it. "Do ye not know? Do ye not hear? Is it not proclaimed to you from the beginning? Have ye not obtained an insight into the foundations of the earth?" We have here four questions chiastically arranged. The absolute being of God, which is above all created things, is something which may be either inferred per ratiocinationem, or learned per traditionem. When Israel failed to acknowledge the absolute distinctness and unequalled supremacy of Jehovah its God, it hardened itself against the knowledge which it might acquire even in a natural way (cf., Psa 19:1-14 and Rom 1:20), and shut its ears against the teaching of revelation and tradition, which had come down from the very beginning of its history. The first two questions are construed with futures, the other two with perfects; the former refer to what is possible, the latter to what is an actual fact. Have you - this is the meaning of the four questions - have you obtained no knowledge of the foundations of the earth, namely, as to the way in which they were laid?

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

“Will you not know? will you not hear? has it not been told you from the first? have you not understood the foundations (or from the foundations) of the earth?” The tenses of the verbs in the first clause have been variously and arbitrarily explained by different interpreters. The English Version and some others exchange both the futures for preterits (have ye not known? have ye not heard?) without any satisfactory reason or authority. But the most satisfactory, because the safest and most regular construction, is the strict one given in the Septuagint (ou gnowsesthe ouk akousesthe) and revived by Lowth (will ye not know? will ye not hear?) The clause is then not a mere expression of surprise at their not knowing, but of concern or indignation at their being unwilling to know. There is no inconsistency between this explanation of the first two questions and the obvious meaning of the third; because the proof of their unwillingness to hear and know was the fact of their having been informed from the beginning. The words seem to refer simply to the testimony of external nature, and to mean that they who question the existence or supremacy of one God are without excuse, as Paul says, because the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made to wit, His eternal power and Godhead (Rom 1:20. Compare Act 14:17; Act 17:24). ‘The foundations of the earth’ are put by a natural and common figure for its being founded, (i.e., its creation).

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

General Information:

Isaiah continues speaking to God's people.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Isaiah uses these questions to emphasize that the people should know Yahweh's greatness as the creator. AT: "You certainly know and have heard! It has been told to you from the beginning; you have understood from the foundations of the earth!" (See: Rhetorical Question and Parallelism)

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

This can be stated in active form. AT: "Have people not told you from the beginning?" (See: Active or Passive)

from the foundations of the earth

The prophet speaks of Yahweh creating the earth as if the earth were a building for which Yahweh laid the foundation. AT: "from the time that Yahweh created the earth" (See: Metaphor)

He is the one who sits above the horizon of the earth

The prophet speaks of Yahweh ruling the earth as if Yahweh were seated on a throne above the earth. (See: Metaphor)

the inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him

The prophet compares the way Yahweh considers humans to the way humans would consider grasshoppers. Just as grasshoppers are small to humans, humans are small and weak before God. (See: Simile)

He stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to live in

These two lines share similar meanings. The prophet speaks of Yahweh creating the heavens as if he had erected a tent in which to live. AT: "He spreads out the heavens as easily as a person would stretch out a curtain or erect a tent in which to live" (See: Parallelism and Simile)

translationWords

found

earth

heaven

tent

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Do you not know...the foundations of the earth Who founded it, and you should have worshipped Him.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

הלא תדעו Have ye not known by your own common sense, which is the most important source of knowledge;

הלא תשמעו have you not heard; have you not been informed by others;

הלא הגד מראש לכם hath it not been told you from the beginning, this is the lowest degree of knowledge.

From the beginning. From the first day of your existence; and even if you have no knowledge at all, have you not considered the foundations of the earth? etc.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.