John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 41:29

"Behold, all of them, their works are vanity [and] nought; their molten images are wind and confusion." — Isaiah 41:29 (ASV)

Behold, they are all vanity. After speaking of idols, he makes the same statement about their worshippers, as it is also said:

They who make them, and all that trust in them, are like them (Psalms 115:8.).

Thus he shows that all superstitious persons are full of “vanity,” and have no judgment or reason. They cannot, indeed, believe this; for, inflated with pride, they regard themselves as men of the highest ability and despise us as stupid and ignorant of human affairs when compared with themselves.

With what pride do the Papists and their learned doctors scorn us! With what haughtiness did the Romans in ancient times despise the Jews! But we do not need to spend time on such pride, for in this passage God condemns them all for “vanity.”

Their works are a failure. He applies the term “works” both to the images that superstitious men make for themselves and to all false worship, which has no limit or standard, and in which every person desires to be a master and teacher of religion. He pronounces all of them to be a “failure,” that is, of no value. He declares this even more plainly when he says that they are wind and chaos, that is, confusion; for I explain תהו (tohu) in the same sense it has in the first chapter of Genesis, where Moses says that the earth was at first shapeless and confused (Genesis 1:2.).

This passage against idolaters should be carefully studied. For they think that images were appointed to preserve religion, and that minds are stirred by the sight of them, as by the visible presence of God. They think that they are the books of the ignorant and unlearned, who cannot be instructed by reading the Scriptures.

But the Spirit of God here declares that it is a confused and shapeless thing, that is, because it disturbs the minds of men and holds them in superstition; and indeed, all true knowledge that exists among men is choked and quenched by this worship of idols.

In short, he teaches that all images, the homage paid to them, and those who have made and follow them, are mere vanity, and that we may safely condemn them.

CHAPTER 42.