Isaiah 44:13

Isa 44:13 The carpenter stretcheth out [his] rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.

Ver. 13. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule.] As did the carpenter of Cockram, who yet made but an ill-shaped rood, and was forced to sue for his money. {a} Mrs Catismore suffered in King Henry VIII’s days for saying that images were but carpenters’ chips; and yet they are no better. That is a remarkable saying of Seneca, Ridiculum est genu posito, &c. It is a ridiculous thing to worship images, and yet to slight the man that made them.

And maketh it after the figure of a man.] God made man after his own image; and man, to be even with God, will needs make him after his image. {b}

{a} Acts and Mon., fol. 1340.

{b} Quasi ad hostimentum.

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.

To place it in some Temple.

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

After the smith's work in preparing the instruments comes the carpenter's work in forming the idol.

rule--rather, "line" [BARNES].

with a line--rather, a "pencil," [HORSLEY]. Literally, "red ochre," which he uses to mark on the wood the outline of the figure [LOWTH]. Or best, the stylus or graver, with which the incision of the outline is made [GESENIUS].

planes--rather, "chisels" or "carving tools," for a plane would not answer for carving.

compass--from a Hebrew root, "to make a circle"; by it, symmetry of form is secured.

according to . . . beauty of a man--irony. The highest idea the heathen could form of a god was one of a form like their own. JEROME says, "The more handsome the statue the more august the god was thought." The incarnation of the Son of God condescends to this anthropomorphic feeling so natural to man, but in such a way as to raise man's thoughts up to the infinite God who "is a spirit."

that it may remain in . . . house--the only thing it was good for; it could not hear nor save (compare Wisdom 13:15).

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

(13) The carpenter.—The wooden idol comes next. First there is the rough measurement with the “rule;” then the artificer draws the outline of the figure in red chalk. “Plane” and “compasses” come in to make the form more definite. The human figure is complete; then there is the artist’s final touch to add the element of beauty; and so it is ready for the “house,” or temple.

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

13. The carpenter] lit., “the workman in wood.”

stretcheth out a line, (R.V.)] to mark off the dimensions of the future image on the block of wood. For line in the next clause read pencil (as R.V.); the word, like that for “planes” (which may mean “chisels” or any cutting implement), occurs only here.

fitteth] R.V. “shapeth”; lit. maketh.

that it may remain in the house] to dwell in a house; either a great temple, or a private shrine.

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.

The carpenter stretcheth out his rule,.... Or, the worker of trees (e); that works in wood, or makes images of wood; having cut down a tree, he stretches out his rule or line upon it, and takes the dimensions of it, and measures the length and the breadth of it, as much as is for his purpose to make a god of: and then

he maketh it out with a line; coloured with ochre, or chalk, which leaves a mark, by which he knows where to cut it, and fashion it to his mind:

and he fitteth it with planes; first with the rougher planes, which take off the knotty and more rugged parts; and then with a smoother plane, makes it even, and polishes it:

and he marketh it out with a compass; where its head and body, and legs and arms, and other parts must be:

and maketh it after the figure of a man; with all the parts and proportion of a man:

according to the beauty of a man; with the face and countenance of a man; with all the lineaments and just symmetry of a man; in the most comely and beautiful manner he is capable of, that it may be the more striking and pleasing to the worshippers of it. Jarchi's note is,

"this is a woman, who is the glory of her husband;''

and so the Targum,

"according to the praise of a woman;''

there being female deities, as Juno, Venus, Diana, and others:

that it may remain in the house (f); either in the temple built for it, whither its rotaries repair to the worship of it; or in the dwelling house, being one of the Lares or Penates, household gods: it may be, this is said by way of scorn and contempt; this god being made, is set up in the house, from whence it cannot stir nor move, to the help of any of its worshippers.

(e) "faber lignorum", Montanus; "artifex lignarius", V. L. Pagninus; "faber lignarius", Vitringa. (f) The note of Ben Melech is, "as it is the glory of a woman to abide in the house, and not go out of doors, so a graven image abides in the house.''

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

The carpenter - The axe is made Isa 44:12, and the carpenter now proceeds to the construction of the god.

Stretcheth out his rule - For the purpose of laying out his work, or measuring it. The word rendered here ‘rule,’ however (קו qâv), means properly “a line”; and should be so rendered here. The carpenter stretches out a line, but not a rule.

He marketh it out with a line - He marks out the shape; the length, and breadth, and thickness of the body, in the rough and unhewn piece of wood. He has an idea in his mind of the proper shape of a god, and he goes to work to make one of that form. The expression ‘to mark out with a line,’ is, however, not congruous. The word which is used here, and which is rendered ‘line’ (שׂרד s'ered) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. Lowth and Kimchi render it, ‘Red ochre.’ According to this the reference is to the chalk, red clay, or crayon, which a carpenter uses on a line to mark out his work. But according to Gesenius, the word means an awl, or a stylus, or engraver; with which the artist sketches the outlines of the figure to be sculptured. A carpenter always uses such an instrument in laying out and marking his work.

He fitteth it with planes - Or rather with chisels, or carving-tools, with which wooden images were carved. Planes are rather adapted to a smooth surface; carving is performed with chisels. The word is derived from קצע qâtsa‛, ‘to cut off.’ The Chaldee renders it, אזמל 'azemēl - ‘A knife.’ The Septuagint renders this, ‘Framed it by rule, and glued the parts together.’

Marketh it out with the compass - From חוּג chûg, “to make a circle,” to revolve, as compasses do. By a compass he accurately designates the parts, and marks out the symmetry of the form.

According to the beauty of a man - Perhaps there may be a little sarcasm here in the thought that a god should be made in the shape of a man. It was true, however, that the statues of the gods among the ancients were made after the most perfect conceptions of the human form. The statuary of the Greeks was of this description, and the images of Apollo, of Venus, and of Jupiter, have been celebrated everywhere as the most perfect representations of the bureau form.

That it may remain in the house - To dwell in a temple. Such statues were usually made to decorate a temple; or rather perhaps temples were reared to be dwelling places of the gods. It may be implied here, that the idol was of no use but to remain in a house. It could not hear, or save. It was like a useless piece of furniture, and had none of the attributes of God.

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

Man. To be styled afterwards a god. (Calmet) --- Maluit esse deum. (Horace i. ser. 8.)

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).

He here speaks, either,

1. Of the same image, which is supposed to be made of wood, and then covered with some metal; or,

2. Of another sort of images made of wood, as the former might be made of iron. It is not material which way you understand it.

He marketh it with a line; he measureth and marketh that portion of wood by his rule and line of which the idol is to be made.

According to the beauty of a man; in the same comely shape and proportions which are in a living man, whom he designs to represent as exactly as is possible.

That it may remain, or sit, or dwell; which implies either,

1. That it cannot stir out of its place; or,

2. That when the image is made, it is set up and fixed in its appointed place.

In the house; either in the temple appointed for it; or in the dwelling-house of him that made it; that he and his family might more frequently give worship to it, and might receive protection from it, as idolaters vainly imagined.

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

The carpenter, etc. When the smith has done his part in the formation of tools, the carpenter is called into action. His proceedings are traced "extragressively." (Delitzsch). First, he is regarded as in possession of his block of wood. On this he proceeds to stretch out his rule, to obtain the idol"s length and breadth. Then he marks out on the block a rough outline with red chalk (sered). After this he pares away the superfluous wood with planes, or chisels, and marks out the limbs more accurately with the compass, planning and measuring until he has brought the rough block into the figure of a man, and impressed on it something of the beauty of a man, so that it may seem worthy of remaining in the place where it is set up, whether temple or private house. But there is something necessarily anterior to all this. To obtain his block, the carpenter must first cut down a tree, or have one cut down for him (ver. 14); to obtain a tree, he (or some one for him) must have planted it; for the tree to have grown to a fitting size, the rain must have watered it. So the very existence of these wooden idols depends ultimately on.whether it has rained or noti.e., whether God has given his rain or withheld it.

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

According to - In the same comely shape and proportions which are in a living man. House - In the dwelling-house of him that made it.

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

“He has carved wood, he has stretched a line, he will mark it with the awl (or graver), he will form it with the chisels, and with the compass (or circle) he will mark it, and then, make it (or now he has made it) like the structure (i.e., after the model) of a man, like the beauty of mankind, to dwell in a house.” In this verse, as in that before it, the alternation of the preterit and future introduces us into the very midst of the process, and describes it as already begun but not yet finished. This distinctive feature of the passage is destroyed by making all the verbs indiscriminately present. The future at the opening of the second clause may either denote simply that the act described is subsequent to that just mentioned, or it may represent what was just now future as already done, thereby rendering the view of a progressive operation still more vivid. The two markings or delineations mentioned are commonly supposed to have respect to the general dimensions of the figure and then to its precise form and proportions. The meaning of the last words of the verse seems to be that the idol, being like a man in form, is, like a man, to dwell in a house.

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

with a line

A string was used to outline the shape of the idol in the wood.

stylus

This is a sharp tool to scratch the wood so the craftsman can see where to cut.

a compass

This is a tool with two points that spread out used to help mark the wood to make the idol.

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

The carpenter And if he comes to make it of wood, and he is a carpenter, the following is his method.

stretched out a line as is the custom of the carpenters, and according to the line, יְתָאֲרֵהוּ בַשֶּׂרֶד, he straightens it with a saw, which they call doloire in French. he beautifies it Heb. יְתָאֲרֵהוּ, he beautifies it.

he fixes it with planes Heb. מַקְצֻעוֹת. He smoothes it with a plane and a blade. Jonathan renders מַקְצֻעוֹת as אִיזְמֵלַיָּא, knives or blades.

and with a compass he rounds it Heb. יְתָאֳרֵהוּ, an expression similar to (Josh. 15:9): “And the border circled (וְתָאַר).” If he comes to make circular drawings, he draws around it with a compass, compas in French.

like the beauty of a man That is a woman, who is the beauty of her husband.

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.

The carpenter, etc. After having mentioned the mason and smith, he speaks of the carpenter.

The carpenter stretches out his rule, etc. This is just the mode of proceeding of those workmen.

יתארהו He forms it or he draws the outlines; comp. ותאר הגבול and the border was drawn (Jos. 15:9).

שרד A kind of drug used for dying. The word is hap. leg. יעשהו He finisheth it.

מקצעות Rulers. This is the opinion of R. Jonah.

מחוגה Compass. Comp. חוג circle (40:22). It is an instrument used for drawing a circle.

According to the beauty of a man, that is, the female, according to the opinion of some; but I think that it is in reality only a repetition of the preceding idea.

לשבת בית That it may remain in the house. That it be like a man, who dwells in his house.

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.