Isaiah 40:19
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.
American King James Version (AKJV)
The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.
American Standard Version (ASV)
The image, a workman hath cast it , and the goldsmith overlayeth it with gold, and casteth for it'silver chains.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
The workman makes an image, and the gold-worker puts gold plates over it, and makes silver bands for it.
Webster's Revision
The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
World English Bible
A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
English Revised Version (ERV)
The graven image, a workman melted it, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth for it silver chains.
Definitions for Isaiah 40:19
Clarke's Isaiah 40:19 Bible Commentary
And casteth silver chains "And forgeth for it chains of silver" - For צורף tsoreph, the participle, twenty-seven MSS., five ancient, and three editions, read צרף tsaraph, pret. third person.
Barnes's Isaiah 40:19 Bible Commentary
The workman - The Hebrew word denotes an artificer of any kind, and is applied to one who engraved on wood or stone Exodus 28:2; to a workman in iron, brass, stone, wood Exodus 35:35; Deuteronomy 27:15; or an artisan, or artificer in general. It here refers manifestly to a man who worked in the metals of which idols were commonly made. Those idols were sometimes made of wood, sometimes of clay, but more frequently, as they are at present in India, of metal. It became, undoubtedly, a regular trade or business thus to make idol-gods.
Melteth - Casts or founds.
A graven image - (פסל pesel). This word commonly denotes an image carved or graven from wood Exodus 20:4; Judges 17:3; Isaiah 44:15, Isaiah 44:17; but it is also frequently applied to a molten image, or one that is cast from metals Jeremiah 10:14; Jeremiah 51:17. It is used in this sense here; as there is an incongruity in the idea of casting, or melting a graven image.
And the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold - Idols were frequently overlaid with gold or silver. Those which were in the temples of the gods were probably commonly made in this way, and probably those also which were made for private use, as far as it could be afforded. The word here rendered 'goldsmith,' however, does not of necessity man a worker in gold, but a smith in general, or a worker in any kind of metals.
And casteth silver chains - For the idol. These were not to fasten it, but for the purpose of ornament. The general principle seems to have been to decorate their idols with that which was regarded as the highest ornament among the people; and as chains were used in abundance as a part of their personal ornaments among the Orientals (see the notes at Isaiah 3:23), so they made use of the same kind of ornaments for their idols. The idols of the Hindoos now are lavishly decorated in this manner.
Wesley's Isaiah 40:19 Bible Commentary
40:19 Melteth - He melts metal into a mould, which afterwards is graven or carved to make it more exact.
