17. All nations. He repeats what he had said, that it is in the power and at the disposal of God to destroy “all nations,” whenever he shall think proper; and that, even while they remain in their present condition, they are reckoned as nothing before him. But it may be thought absurd for him to say, that “the nations are nothing,” since God created them, that they might be something. I reply, this is said by comparison; for the depravity of the human mind is such that it obscures the divine majesty, and places above it those things which ought to have been subject to God; and, therefore, when we come to that contest, we may boldly declare that everything that is compared with God is worthless. Nor does Isaiah speak merely about the nature of men, such as it was created by God; but his aim is to abase and restrain their pride, when they venture to exalt themselves against God. We know that we cannot subsist but in God, in whom alone, as Paul declares, “we live, and move, and are.” (Acts 17:28.) Nothing is more vain than man; and, as David says,
“If he be laid in the balance with vanity, he will be found to be even lighter than vanity.” (Psalms 62:9.)
In the same manner does Isaiah affirm that “the nations” are not only “nothing,” but “less than nothing.” in order to exhibit more fully their feebleness and vanity. (116)
(116) The ambiguous use of the word “vanity,” and of the corresponding term in the Latin language, “ vanitas,” is avoided by our author’s version; “and in comparison of him they are reckoned less than nothing, and what is not.” — Ed.