Ésaïe 44:13

Louis Segond

Le charpentier étend le cordeau, Fait un tracé au crayon, Façonne le bois avec un couteau, Et marque ses dimensions avec le compas; Et il produit une figure d'homme, Une belle forme humaine, Pour qu'elle habite dans une maison.

Parallel Translations

La Bible David Martin (1744)
Le menuisier �tend sa r�gle, et le crayonne avec de la craie; il le fait avec des �querres, et le forme au compas, et le fait � la ressemblance d'un homme, et le pare comme un homme, afin qu'il demeure dans la maison.

La Bible Ostervald (1996)
Le charpentier tend le cordeau; il marque le bois avec le crayon; il le fa�onne avec le ciseau, et le marque avec le compas; il en fait une figure d'homme, une belle forme humaine, pour la loger dans une maison.

Darby's French Translation
Le sculpteur en bois �tend un cordeau; il trace sa forme avec de la craie rouge, il la fait avec des outils tranchants, et la trace avec un compas, et la fait selon la figure d'un homme, selon la beaut� de l'homme, pour qu'elle demeure dans la maison.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he marketh: Exodus 20:4, Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 4:16-18, Deuteronomy 4:28, Acts 17:29, Romans 1:23

that it may: Genesis 31:19, Genesis 31:30, Genesis 31:32, Genesis 35:2, Deuteronomy 27:15, Judges 17:4, Judges 17:5, Judges 18:24, Ezekiel 8:12

Reciprocal: 2 Chronicles 33:22 - for Amon sacrificed Isaiah 40:20 - chooseth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The carpenter stretcheth out his rule,.... Or, the worker of trees e; that works in wood, or makes images of wood; having cut down a tree, he stretches out his rule or line upon it, and takes the dimensions of it, and measures the length and the breadth of it, as much as is for his purpose to make a god of: and then

he maketh it out with a line; coloured with ochre, or chalk, which leaves a mark, by which he knows where to cut it, and fashion it to his mind:

and he fitteth it with planes; first with the rougher planes, which take off the knotty and more rugged parts; and then with a smoother plane, makes it even, and polishes it:

and he marketh it out with a compass; where its head and body, and legs and arms, and other parts must be:

and maketh it after the figure of a man; with all the parts and proportion of a man:

according to the beauty of a man; with the face and countenance of a man; with all the lineaments and just symmetry of a man; in the most comely and beautiful manner he is capable of, that it may be the more striking and pleasing to the worshippers of it. Jarchi's note is,

"this is a woman, who is the glory of her husband;''

and so the Targum,

"according to the praise of a woman;''

there being female deities, as Juno, Venus, Diana, and others:

that it may remain in the house f; either in the temple built for it, whither its rotaries repair to the worship of it; or in the dwelling house, being one of the Lares or Penates, household gods: it may be, this is said by way of scorn and contempt; this god being made, is set up in the house, from whence it cannot stir nor move, to the help of any of its worshippers.

e חרש עצים "faber lignorum", Montanus; "artifex lignarius", V. L. Pagninus; "faber lignarius", Vitringa. f The note of Ben Melech is, "as it is the glory of a woman to abide in the house, and not go out of doors, so a graven image abides in the house.''

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The carpenter - The axe is made Isaiah 44:12, and the carpenter now proceeds to the construction of the god.

Stretcheth out his rule - For the purpose of laying out his work, or measuring it. The word rendered here ‘rule,’ however (קו qâv), means properly “a line”; and should be so rendered here. The carpenter stretches out a line, but not a rule.

He marketh it out with a line - He marks out the shape; the length, and breadth, and thickness of the body, in the rough and unhewn piece of wood. He has an idea in his mind of the proper shape of a god, and he goes to work to make one of that form. The expression ‘to mark out with a line,’ is, however, not congruous. The word which is used here, and which is rendered ‘line’ (שׂרד s'ered) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. Lowth and Kimchi render it, ‘Red ochre.’ According to this the reference is to the chalk, red clay, or crayon, which a carpenter uses on a line to mark out his work. But according to Gesenius, the word means an awl, or a stylus, or engraver; with which the artist sketches the outlines of the figure to be sculptured. A carpenter always uses such an instrument in laying out and marking his work.

He fitteth it with planes - Or rather with chisels, or carving-tools, with which wooden images were carved. Planes are rather adapted to a smooth surface; carving is performed with chisels. The word is derived from קצע qâtsa‛, ‘to cut off.’ The Chaldee renders it, אזמל 'az^emēl - ‘A knife.’ The Septuagint renders this, ‘Framed it by rule, and glued the parts together.’

Marketh it out with the compass - From חוּג chûg, “to make a circle,” to revolve, as compasses do. By a compass he accurately designates the parts, and marks out the symmetry of the form.

According to the beauty of a man - Perhaps there may be a little sarcasm here in the thought that a god should be made in the shape of a man. It was true, however, that the statues of the gods among the ancients were made after the most perfect conceptions of the human form. The statuary of the Greeks was of this description, and the images of Apollo, of Venus, and of Jupiter, have been celebrated everywhere as the most perfect representations of the bureau form.

That it may remain in the house - To dwell in a temple. Such statues were usually made to decorate a temple; or rather perhaps temples were reared to be dwelling places of the gods. It may be implied here, that the idol was of no use but to remain in a house. It could not hear, or save. It was like a useless piece of furniture, and had none of the attributes of God.