Isaiah 40:21

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

Isaiah 40:21 in Other Translations

21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

21 Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant?

21 Have you not been paying attention? Have you not been listening? Haven't you heard these stories all your life? Don't you understand the foundation of all things?

21 Have ye not known? have yet not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

21 Don't you know? Haven't you heard? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Don't you understand the foundations of the earth?

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not considered the foundations of the earth?

21 Don't you know who made everything? Haven't you heard about him? Hasn't it been told to you from the beginning? Haven't you understood it ever since the earth was made?

Isaiah 40:21 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 40:21

Have ye not known?
] This is the speech of the prophet, directed to the idolaters, appealing to their own natural knowledge, who, from the light of nature, might know that idols were nothing, had no divinity in them: that it is God that made the earth and governs the world, and who only ought to be worshipped: have ye not heard?
by tradition from the ancients, from your forefathers, who received it from theirs, and have delivered it to you: hath it not been told you from the beginning?
from the beginning of your states and kingdoms, and even from the beginning of the world, by the wisest and best of men that have been in it, that those things are true before related, and what follow: have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
the being of God, the invisible things of him, his eternal power and Godhead, from the things that are made, even from his founding of the earth; as well as such knowledge and understanding has been as early as that, and might be continued from it: or, have ye not understood the foundations of the earth
^F25? what the earth is founded upon, and who laid the foundations of it; no other than that divine Being described in the next words.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 (Urah twdowm Mtwnybh alh) "nonne intelligetis fundamenta terrae?" Pagninus, Montanus; "annon intellexistis?" Vatablus.

Isaiah 40:21 In-Context

19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it.

20 A person too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot; they look for a skilled worker to set up an idol that will not topple.

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

Cross References

• 1. ver 28; 2 Kings 19:25; Isaiah 41:22; Isaiah 42:9; Isaiah 44:8; Isaiah 48:3,5
• 2. Psalms 19:1; Psalms 50:6; Acts 14:17
• 3. S Genesis 1:1
• 4. Romans 1:19
• 5. Isaiah 48:13; Isaiah 51:13