Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 40:20

"He that is too impoverished for [such] an oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilful workman to set up a graven image, that shall not be moved." — Isaiah 40:20 (ASV)

He who is so impoverished ... —The transition is abrupt, but the intention apparently is to represent idolatry at its opposite extremes of the elaborate art in which kings and princes delighted, and the rude, rough image, hardly more than a fetish, the inutile lignum of Horace, which cannot be moved, standing on its own wide base, so as not to fall.