Isaiah 40:22

22 [It is] he who sits above the circle of the eretz, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in;

Isaiah 40:22 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 40:22

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth
Or, "the globe ^F26" of it; for the earth is spherical or globular: not a flat plain, but round, hung as a ball in the air; here Jehovah sits as the Lord and Sovereign; being the Maker of it, he is above it, orders and directs its motion, and governs all things in it: Kimchi rightly observes, that the heavens are the circle of the earth, which is the centre of them, and around which they are; and so it signifies, that the Lord sits or dwells in the heavens, from whence he beholds the children of men: and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;
or "locusts ^F1"; as one upon a very great eminence looking down beholds creatures as exceeding small and little; and if the Israelites were to the "anakim" or giants as grasshoppers, ( Numbers 13:33 ) , much more must puny mortals be such in the sight of God, and in comparison of him; and this may denote, not only the minuteness of men, but what weak, impotent, useless, worthless, and short lived creatures men are: that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain;
alluding to the firmament or expanse made at the creation, and still continued; which is as a curtain to himself, which he draws around himself, he dwelling in the highest heavens, and in light inaccessible to mortals; and which he stretches out as a canopy around this earth, for the use of the inhabitants of it: or, "as a little thing"; or, as a little skin ^F2; and which he stretches out as easily as a man can stretch out that: and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in it;
for himself to dwell in, and so stretches out the heavens like curtains about him; tents being made of such, and often of skins.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (gwx le) "super sphaeram", Pagninus; "globum", Montanus Vatablus; "super orbem telluris", Vitringa.
F1 (Mybgxk) "ut locustae", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Vitringa; "tanquam locustae", Munster; "velut locustae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F2 (qdk) "velut tenue", Montanus; "tenuissimum", Vatablus; "pellem." Munster; so some in Vatablus; "pellculam", Gataker.

Isaiah 40:22 In-Context

20 He who is too impoverished for [such] an offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks to him a skillful workman to set up an engraved image, that shall not be moved.

21 Have you not known? have yet not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the eretz?

22 [It is] he who sits above the circle of the eretz, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in;

23 who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the eretz as vanity.

24 Yes, they have not been planted; yes, they have not been sown; yes, their stock has not taken root in the eretz: moreover he blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.