(24) They shall not be planted . . .--Better, Hardly are they planted, hardly are they sown. Such are empires before the eternity of Jehovah: so soon withered that we cannot say that they were ever really planted (Psalm 129:6).

Verse 24. - They shall not be planted... shall not be sown... shall not take root. The verbs are all of them in the past tense. Translate, have not been planted,... sown, etc. The meaning is that princes and judges of the earth are not fixed in their places, have no firm root in the soil, are easily overturned. Even if the case were different, a breath from the Almighty would, as a matter of course, dry them up (see ver. 7) and blow them away. As stubble (comp. Isaiah 5:24; Psalm 83:13).

40:18-26 Whatever we esteem or love, fear or hope in, more than God, that creature we make equal with God, though we do not make images or worship them. He that is so poor, that he has scarcely a sacrifice to offer, yet will not be without a god of his own. They spared no cost upon their idols; we grudge what is spent in the service of our God. To prove the greatness of God, the prophet appeals to all ages and nations. Those who are ignorant of this, are willingly ignorant. God has the command of all creatures, and of all created things. The prophet directs us to use our reason as well as our senses; to consider who created the hosts of heaven, and to pay our homage to Him. Not one fails to fulfil his will. And let us not forget, that He spake all the promises, and engaged to perform them.Yea, they shall not be planted,.... As trees are, like the cedars in Lebanon, though they may seem to be such; but be like the grass of the field, and herbs of the earth: or, "even they shall be", as if they were "not planted (c)", they shall not grow and flourish; or they shall be plucked up, and be no more; this is said of the princes and judges of the earth; nay,

they shall not be sown; as seed is, which springing up, brings forth fruit, but so it shall not be with them; or they shall be as if they had not been sown, no fruit being brought forth by them:

yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth; so as to continue and abide, but they shall soon vanish and disappear, as the most powerful princes and wisest judges do. The Targum is,

"although they multiply, although they increase, although their children become great in the earth:''

"and" or "yea",

he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither; as grass withers, when a severe wind blows upon it:

and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble; which is not able to stand before the force of it; and as unable are the greatest potentates on earth to stand before the tempest of divine wrath and vengeance; if God blows but upon them in anger, all their glory and grandeur, pomp and power, wither away like the flower of the field; and especially if he comes forth in all the fury of his wrath in a tempestuous way against them, they are no more able to stand before him that stubble before a violent storm: see Revelation 6:15. The Targum is,

"yet, even he will send his fury upon them; and his word shall take them away, as a whirlwind stubble.''

(c) "perinde ut non plantati", Calvin; and so the following clauses.