Isaiah 40:23
◄  Isaiah 40:23  ►
New International Version (©2011)
He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

New Living Translation (©2007)
He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing.

English Standard Version (©2001)
who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
He reduces princes to nothing and makes judges of the earth irrational.

International Standard Version (©2012)
who brings princes to nothing, and makes void the rulers of the earth.

NET Bible (©2006)
He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing; he makes the earth's leaders insignificant.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
He makes rulers unimportant and makes earthly judges worth nothing.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as nothing.

American King James Version
That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as vanity.

American Standard Version
that bringeth princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Douay-Rheims Bible
He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity.

Darby Bible Translation
that bringeth the princes to nothing, that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

English Revised Version
that bringeth princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Webster's Bible Translation
That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

World English Bible
who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.

Young's Literal Translation
He who is making princes become nothing, Judges of earth as emptiness hath made;

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

40:18-26 Whatever we esteem or love, fear or hope in, more than God, that creature we make equal with God, though we do not make images or worship them. He that is so poor, that he has scarcely a sacrifice to offer, yet will not be without a god of his own. They spared no cost upon their idols; we grudge what is spent in the service of our God. To prove the greatness of God, the prophet appeals to all ages and nations. Those who are ignorant of this, are willingly ignorant. God has the command of all creatures, and of all created things. The prophet directs us to use our reason as well as our senses; to consider who created the hosts of heaven, and to pay our homage to Him. Not one fails to fulfil his will. And let us not forget, that He spake all the promises, and engaged to perform them.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - The princes... the judges; rather, princes, judges. The entire class of such is meant, not any special individuals (comp. Psalm 107:40; Job 12:19-21). As vanity; or, as chaos - the same word that is used in ver. 17.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

That bringeth princes to nothing,.... The great men of the earth, kings, rulers, and nobles, these he brings to the dust; and all their counsels, schemes, and purposes, come to nothing; and their monarchies and kingdoms too in time. Where are now the Babylonish, Persian, and Grecian monarchies, and those great princes that formerly reigned in them?

he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity; their decrees and decisions to stand for nothing, as "tohu" and "bohu", the first of which words is used here; so that they are no more regarded and attended to.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. (Ps 107:4; Da 2:21).

judges—that is, rulers; for these exercised judicial authority (Ps 2:10). The Hebrew, shophtee, answers to the Carthaginian chief magistrates, suffetes.

Isaiah 40:23 Parallel Commentaries

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Here is Your God!
…22It is he that sits on the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in: 23That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as vanity. 24Yes, they shall not be planted; yes, they shall not be sown: yes, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow on them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. …

Job 12:21 He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
Psalm 107:40 he who pours contempt on nobles made them wander in a trackless waste.
Isaiah 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
Isaiah 34:12 Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away.
Jeremiah 25:18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin and an object of horror and scorn, a curse --as they are today;
Amos 2:3 I will destroy her ruler and kill all her officials with him," says the LORD.