The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:
Significance
Isaiah 44:13 describes an idol-maker who "fashions" (יְתָאֲרֵהוּ, yeta'arehu) a human figure from wood — a satirical portrait within Isaiah's polemic against idol worship (44:9-20). The contrast with 2 Chronicles 36:22 is theological: while craftsmen fashion lifeless wooden gods, the living God "stirs up the spirit of Cyrus" (הֵעִיר יְהוָה אֶת־רוּחַ כֹּרֶשׁ) to issue the decree restoring Israel. The juxtaposition in Isaiah 44 between the impotence of carved idols and the power of God to name and commission a foreign king demonstrates that Israel's God acts in history while the nations' gods cannot even speak.
Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Echo
Connection Method(s)
Longitudinal Theme
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