John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 40:17

"All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity." — Isaiah 40:17 (ASV)

All nations. He repeats what he has said: that it is in God’s power and at his disposal to destroy all nations, whenever he thinks proper; and that, even while they remain in their present condition, they are reckoned as nothing before him. But it might seem absurd for him to say that the nations are nothing, since God created them so that they might be something.

I reply, this is said by comparison; for the depravity of the human mind is such that it obscures the divine majesty, and places above it those things that ought to have been subject to God; and, therefore, when we come to that contest, we may boldly declare that everything that is compared with God is worthless.

Nor does Isaiah speak merely about the nature of human beings, as it was created by God; but his aim is to abase and restrain their pride when they venture to exalt themselves against God. We know that we cannot subsist except in God, in whom alone, as Paul declares, we live, and move, and are (Acts 17:28). Nothing is more vain than man; and, as David says,

If he be laid in the balance with vanity, he will be found to be even lighter than vanity (Psalms 62:9).

In the same manner does Isaiah affirm that the nations are not only nothing, but less than nothing, in order to exhibit more fully their feebleness and vanity.