Isaiah 44:12 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The smith with the tongs, &c.— From this verse to the 20th the folly of idolatry is set forth in the most lively colours, and the whole scheme of idol worshippers exposed in an elegant strain of refined irony. There is no need of any exposition. The prophet here describes the instruments necessary for the carpenter to form the image. The 14th verse may be rendered, He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the teil or the pine-tree, and the oak, which he reareth up for himself, &c. He planteth a pine, &c. Isaiah 44:18. They have not known, nor understood, because their eyes were so closed up, that, &c. Isaiah 44:19. Nor doth he at all reflect in mind; nor has he the consideration or the sense to say, &c. Isaiah 44:20. He feeds upon ashes; his deluded heart, &c. The meaning of the phrase, He feeds upon ashes, is, "He depends on a thing which has no power to help him; barren, dry, and lifeless:" Or possibly the expression may allude to the curse of the serpent, and be an oblique hint, that idolatry is the greatest degradation which the dignity of the human species can suffer: such a degradation as brings man to a level with the reptiles, the lowest and most abominable of brute creatures. See Vitringa.