- Adam Clarke
- Keil-Delitzsch
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
The smith with the tongs, etc. "The smith cutteth off a portion of iron" - מעצד meatstsed, Participium Pihel of עצד atsad, to cut; still used in that sense in the Arabic. See Simonis Lex. Hebrews The Septuagint and Syriac take the word in this form: but they render it sharpeneth the iron. See Castell. Lex. in voce.
The sacred writers are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry; they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. But this passage of Isaiah, Isa 44:12-20, far exceeds any thing that ever was written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition. One or two of the apocryphal writers have attempted to imitate the prophet, but with very ill success; Wisd. 13:11-19; 15:7, etc.; Baruch 6, NAB (editor's note: some translations treat this as Letter to Jeremiah), especially the latter, who, injudiciously dilating his matter, and introducing a number of minute circumstances, has very much weakened the force and effect of his invective. On the contrary a heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has, in a line or two, given idolatry one of the severest strokes it ever received: -
Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
Cum faber incertus, scamnum faceretne
Priapum, Maluit esse Deum. Deus inde ego.
Horat. Satyr, lib. 1. sat. viii.
"Formerly I was the stump of a fig tree, a useless log; when the carpenter, after hesitating whether to make me a god or a stool, at last determined to make me a god. Thus I became a god!"
From the tenth to the seventeenth verse, a most beautiful strain of irony is carried on against idolatry. And we may naturally think that every idolater, who either read or heard it, must have been for ever ashamed of his own devices. - L.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary
The prophet now conducts us into the workshops. "The iron-smith has a chisel, and works with red-hot coals, and shapes it with hammers, and works it with his powerful arm. He gets hungry thereby, and his strength fails; if he drink no water, he becomes exhausted. The carpenter draws the line, marks it with the pencil, carries it out with planes, and makes a drawing of it with the compass, and carries it out like the figure of a man, like the beauty of a man, which may dwell in the house." The two words chârash barzel are connected together in the sense of faber ferrarius, as we may see from the expression chârash ‛ētsı̄m (the carpenter, faber lignarius), which follows in Isa 44:13. Chârash is the construct of chârâsh (= charrâsh), as in Exo 28:11. The second kametz of this form of noun does indeed admit of contraction, but only to the extent of a full short vowel; consequently the construct of the plural is not חרשׁי, but חרשׁי (Isa 45:16, etc.). Hence Isa 44:12 describes how the smith constructs an idol of iron, Isa 44:13 how the carpenter makes one of wood. But the first clause, מעצד בּרזל חרשׁ, is enigmatical. In any case, מעצד is a smith's tool of some kind (from עצד, related to חצד). And consequently Gesenius, Umbreit, and others, adopt the rendering, "the smith an axe, that does he work ... ;" but the further account of the origin of an idol says nothing at all about this axe, which the smith supplies to the carpenter, that he may hew out an idol with it. Hitzig renders it, "The smith, a hatchet does he work, and forms it (viz., into an idol);" but what a roundabout way! first to make a hatchet and then make it into an idol, which would look very slim when made. Knobel translates it, "As for the cutting-smith, he works it;" but this guild of cutting-smiths certainly belongs to Utopia. The best way to render the sentence intelligible, would be to supply לו: "The smith has (uses) the ma‛ătsâd." But in all probability a word has dropped out; and the Septuagint rendering, ὅτι ὤξυνεν τέκτων σίδηρον σκεπάρνω εἰργάσατο κ.τ.λ, shows that the original reading of the text was מעצד ברזל חרס חדד, and that חדד got lost on account of its proximity to יחץ. The meaning therefore is, "The smith has sharpened, or sharpens (chiddēd, syn. shinnēn) the ma‛ătsâd," possibly the chisel, to cut the iron upon the anvil; and works with red-hot coals, making the iron red-hot by blowing the fire. The piece of iron which he cuts off is the future idol, and this he shapes with hammers (יצרהוּ the future of יצר). And what of the carpenter? He stretches the line upon the block of wood, to measure the length and breadth of the idol; he marks it upon the wood with red-stone (sered, rubrica, used by carpenters), and works it with planes (maqtsu‛ōth, a feminine form of מקצוע, from קצע, to cut off, pare off, plane; compare the Arabic mikta‛), and with the compasses (mechūgâh, the tool used, lâchūg, i.e. for making a circle) he draws the outline of it, that is to say, in order that the different parts of the body may be in right proportion; and he constructs it in such a manner that it acquires the shape of a man, the beautiful appearance of a man, to be set up like a human inmate in either a temple or private house. The piel תּאר (תּאר), from which comes yetāărēhū, is varied here (according to Isaiah's custom; cf., Isa 29:7; Isa 26:5) with the poelתּאר, which is to be understood as denoting the more exact configuration. The preterites indicate the work for which both smith and carpenter have made their preparations; the futures, the work in which they are engaged.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
tongs--rather, "prepareth (to be supplied) an axe," namely, with which to cut down the tree designed as the material of the idol. The "smith" (Hebrew, "workman in iron") here answers to the "carpenter" (Hebrew, "workman in wood"). "He worketh it (the axe, not the idol, which was wood, not metal) in the coals," &c. The axe was wrought, not cast. The smith makes the axe for the carpenter.
hungry . . . drinketh no water--so eager is he to expedite his work while the iron is hot. If the god were worth anything, it would not let him grow "faint" with hunger and thirst. Williams, the missionary, states that the South Sea islanders when they make an idol abstain from food and drink.
John Gill Bible Commentary
The smith with the tongs,.... Or, "the worker of iron" (c); the blacksmith, who had a concern in making of idols, for some were made of iron, Dan 5:4, or in making plates to cover them, or nails to fasten them with, or instruments which the carpenter made use of in cutting down trees, and fitting the wood for an image; such as the axe or hatchet, or plane, and which some think is here meant, by the word translated "tongs", but is rendered an "axe", Jer 10:3 and is used for that, or an hatchet, or a plane, by the Misnic (d) writers; so the Targum renders it,
"the smith out of iron makes an axe or hatchet:''
"both worketh in the coals"; he puts his iron in the coals, and blows upon them, and so makes it soft and malleable, and then takes it out:
and fashioneth it with hammers: beats it with hammers upon the anvil, and puts it into what form he pleases:
and worketh it with the strength of his arms; uses his utmost strength to bring it into a form he is desirous of:
yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth; he drinketh no water, and is faint; he works at it with all his might and main, is earnest at it, and is eagerly desirous of finishing his work; he works till he is hungry and thirsty, and for want of food is ready to faint and sink; and yet will not give himself time to eat and drink, being so intent upon his work: or the sense is, though he is hungry and thirsty, and faints for want of provisions, yet the god he is making, or has made, cannot supply him with any: this is said to expose the folly of idol making, and of idol worship.
(c) "faber ferri", Pagninus, Montanus; "faber ferrarius", V. L. Vitringa. (d) Misn. Sabbat, c. 12. sect. 1. Celim, c. 29. 6.