And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are innumerable. Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made.

And their land is full of idols; they bow themselves down to the work of their own hands, to that which their fingers have made.

And its land is full of idols, To the work of its hands it boweth itself, To that which its fingers have made,

Their land is full of images; they give worship to the work of their hands, even to that which their fingers have made.

Their land also is full of idols; Every one worshippeth the work of his own hands, That which his own fingers have made.

And their land has been filled with horses. And their four-horse chariots are innumerable. And their land has been filled with idols. They have adored the work of their hands, which their own fingers have made.

Impleta est etiam terra ejus idolis: et coram opere manuum suorum se incurvarunt, coram eo quod fixerunt digiti ipsorum.

Their land is also full of idols He repeats what he had already noticed about idolatry, but enters into it more fully; and, having first mentioned the subject itself, he next speaks of the use of it, which almost always follows. It seldom happens that we do not abuse idols when they are set up among us, for it is as when fire has been applied to a pile of wood, which must immediately burn; and wood is not more ready to be set on fire than we are to follow superstition. In the Hebrew language idols are very properly denominated by the word 'lylym, (elilim) which the Prophet here employs, for they are empty things, and of no value. [1] And undoubtedly the Holy Spirit intended by this word to reprove the madness of men who imagined that, by relying on such inventions, they approached nearer to God; as the papists of the present day, in order to plead for the usefulness of their idols, boast that they are the books of the unlearned: but we ought rather to believe the testimony of the Holy Spirit; and even the facts themselves plainly show what advantage the unlearned derive from them; for, led away by gross fancies, they imagine to themselves earthly and carnal gods. Hence Jeremiah justly declares not only that idols are useless, but that they are teachers of falsehood and lies. (Jeremiah 10:14.) And they have bowed down [2] before the work of their own hands We must also attend to this description, in which the Prophet relates that the people bowed down before the works of their own hands; for how stupid was it that men should not only worship wood and stone instead of God, but should honor their own workmanship with the appellation of Deity, which they cannot bestow on themselves! It is truly shocking and monstrous that, as soon as a block of wood which lay neglected has received the finishing-stroke from a mortal man, he presently worships it as if it had been made a God. Although the Prophet addresses the ancient people, the same reasoning applies to the papists, who acknowledge no majesty of God but in the works of their own hands. Before that which their own fingers have made The repetition is emphatic, and to the hands he adds the fingers, in order to exhibit more strongly the grossness of the crime. We must also attend to the mode of expression, which denotes adoration by means of outward gesture; not that it is unlawful among men to bend the knee or the head for the sake of paying public respect, but because he who bows down before an idol professes to render divine worship. Consequently, the silly talk of papists about that adoration which they call Dulia [3] (douleia) is a childish evasion; for when the Prophet speaks of religious worship he condemns universally every token of homage. [4]

Footnotes

1 - "So called," says Buxtorf, "because they are absolutely nothing, agreeably to that saying of the Apostle, an idol is nothing in the world," (1-Corinthians 8:4.) rph'y 'll, (rophee elil) physicians of no value, (Job 13:4,) is an instance of the literal use of the word. -- Ed

2 - They worship. -- Eng. Ver.

3 - The popish distinction between an inferior kind of adoration, called douleia and a higher kind of adoration, called latreia, is illustrated and refuted by our Author, in the Institutes, vol. 1, p. 141, and in the Harmony of the Evangelists, [7]vol. 1, p. 221. -- Ed

4 - That is, of homage paid to idols. -- Ed.

Their land also is full of idols - compare Hosea 8:4; Hosea 10:1. Vitringa supposes that Isaiah here refers to idols that were kept in private houses, as Uzziah and Jotham were worshippers of the true God, and in their reign idolatry was not publicly practiced. It is certain, however, that though Uzziah himself did right, and was disposed to worship the true God, yet he did not effectually remove idolatry from the land. The high places were not removed, and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on them; 2-Kings 15:4. It was customary with the pagan to keep in their houses "Penates or household gods" - small images, which they regarded as "protectors," and to which they paid homage: compare Genesis 30:19; Judges 17:5; 1-Samuel 19:13; Hosea 3:4. 'This is a true and literal description of India. The traveler cannot proceed a "mile" through an inhabited country without seeing idols, and vestiges of idolatry in every direction. See their vessles, their implements of husbandry, their houses, their furniture, their ornaments, their sacred trees, their "domestic" and public temples; and they all declare that the land is full of idols.' - "Roberts."
The work of their own hands - Idols. It is often brought as proof of their great folly and degradation that they paid homage to what "they" had themselves made. See this severely satirized in Isaiah 40:18-20; Isaiah 41:6-7; Isaiah 44:9-17.

Their land also is full of idols "And his land is filled with idols" - Uzziah and Fotham are both said, 2-Kings 15:3, 2-Kings 15:4, 2-Kings 15:34, 2-Kings 15:35, "to have done that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" that is, to have adhered to and maintained the legal worship of God, in opposition to idolatry and all irregular worship; for to this sense the meaning of that phrase is commonly to be restrained; "save that the high places were not removed where the people still sacrificed and burned incense." There was hardly any time when they were quite free from this irregular and unlawful practice, which they seem to have looked upon as very consistent with the true worship of God; and which seems in some measure to have been tolerated, while the tabernacle was removed from place to place, and before the temple was built. Even after the conversion of Manasseh, when he had removed the strange gods, commanded Judah to serve Jehovah the God of Israel, it is added, "Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still on the high places, yet unto Jehovah their God only," 2-Chronicles 33:17. The worshipping on the high places therefore does not necessarily imply idolatry; and from what is said of these two kings, Uzziah and Jotham, we may presume that the public exercise of idolatrous worship was not permitted in their time. The idols therefore here spoken of must have been such as were designed for a private and secret use. Such probably were the teraphim so often mentioned in Scripture; a kind of household gods, of human form, as it should seem, (see 1-Samuel 19:13 (note), and compare Genesis 31:34 (note)), of different magnitude, used for idolatrous and superstitious purposes, particularly for divination, and as oracles, which they consulted for direction in their affairs.

Their land also is full of idols,.... Of the Virgin Mary, and of saints departed, whose images are set up to be worshipped in all their churches, and had in private houses:
and they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made; namely, idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone, Revelation 9:20.

(Hosea 8:4). Not so much public idolatry, which was not sanctioned in Uzziah's and Jotham's reign, but (see 2-Kings 15:4, 2-Kings 15:35) as private.