What Does Isaiah 40:17 Mean in the King James?

All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

Isaiah 40:17 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The power that looks immeasurable from within the world is already measured as nothing from God’s view.

THE MEANING

Before God, the nations that seem to set the limits of your world have no independent weight: the verse names them as nothing, less than nothing, and emptiness. Their size cannot make them ultimate.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A nation’s scale, reach, or dominance proves that it has ultimate substance.

THE ROOT

נֶחְשָׁבוּ

neḥshavū

GROWS FROM

חשב

to think, devise, reckon, or account

The word rendered “counted” belongs to a root that also names thought, planning, and accounting. The verse presents the nations’ apparent weight as a reckoning from God’s vantage, not a measure their own power can set.

ALSO GROWS

machashavah: thought, plan, or device

מַחֲשָׁבָה

This branch shows that the root reaches beyond arithmetic to what is conceived and intended; the nations’ standing is part of a wider reckoning.

cheshbon: account, calculation, or reckoning

חֶשְׁבּוֹן

This branch makes the verse’s image of being counted concrete: power is weighed, and its apparent scale does not determine the result.

THE PATTERN

Collective power and human status do not equal ultimate weight before God.

Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

Psalm 62:9 · KJVThe verse places people of low and high status on the same scale and finds both lighter than emptiness.

That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Isaiah 40:23 · KJVThe rulers who appear to carry a nation’s authority are themselves reduced to nothing and emptiness.

And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

1 Corinthians 1:28 · KJVWhat appears established can be brought to nothing, while what seems to have no standing is given place.

THE THREAD

That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Isaiah 40:23 · KJV

The next image narrows the scale from all nations to their rulers: princes are brought to nothing, and judges become vanity. The repeated language makes verse 17’s claim concrete in the very structures that appear to carry a nation’s weight.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us