Isaiah 37:19 - Exposition

And have cast their gods into the fire . The more valuable of the foreign idols were usually carried off by the Assyrians, and placed in the shrines of their own gods as trophies of victory; but no doubt great numbers of the inferior idols. which were of wood, not even coated with metal—the ξόανα of the Greeks—were burnt. For they were no gods (temp. Jeremiah 2:11 ; Jeremiah 5:7 ; Jeremiah 16:20 , etc.). Isaiah's favourite word for " idols " is elilim , which is, etymologically, " not-gods " ( Isaiah 2:8 , Isaiah 2:18 , Isaiah 2:20 ; Isaiah 10:10 , Isaiah 10:11 ; Isaiah 19:1 , Isaiah 19:3 ; Isaiah 31:7 ). The work of men's hands (see Isaiah 2:8 ; Isaiah 40:19 ; Isaiah 41:7 , etc.). The absurdity of men's worshipping as gods what their own hands had made is ever increasingly ridiculed by the religious Jews (comp. Psalms 115:4-8 ; Isaiah 44:9-20 ; Jeremiah 10:3-15 ; 'Ep of Jeremy,' 8-73).