All the nations are as nothing before him means God regards the nations of the world as nothing. For nations see verse 15. Nothing renders the same Hebrew word translated not and nor in the previous verse. Before him is literally “in his presence.” Revised English Bible and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh have “in his sight.” It may also be rendered “in his opinion/view.”

They are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness: This parallel line intensifies the previous one by saying that God regards the nations as less than nothing and insignificant. For are accounted, see verse 15. Less than nothing is generally considered the sense of the unusual Hebrew expression in Masoretic Text here, which is literally “from nothingness.” The Dead Sea Scrolls text has “like nothingness,” but Hebrew Old Testament Text Project retains Masoretic Text, which we recommend. The Hebrew word rendered emptiness is one of the terms used in Gen 1.2 (where it is rendered “without form”) to refer to the state of the world before God brought order to it in creation (see the comments on 24.10). Here it refers to the insignificance of the nations.

Good News Translation collapses the two lines of this verse into one, but it loses the poetic impact. New International Version translates “Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.” Other possible models are:

• All the nations are as nothing in his sight,
for him they are less than nothing and empty.

• He views all the nations as nothing at all,
he regards them as less than nothing and worthless.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .