Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 40:23

"that bringeth princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." — Isaiah 40:23 (ASV)

That bringeth the princes to nothing. —The words imply, like those of Isaiah 14:9, the prophetic strain of experience. The past is full of the records of kingdoms that are no more; so also shall the future be; mortalia facta peribunt. In “vanity” we have the familiar tohu once more.