18 With whom will you compare God?

What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?o

19 An idol?—something that a smelter casts

and a metalworker plates with gold

and makes silver chains for?p

20 A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal

that will not rot.D

He looks for a skilled craftsman

to set up an idol that will not fall over.q

21 Do you not know?r

Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you

from the beginning?

Have you not considered

the foundations of the earth?s

22 God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;

its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.t

He stretches out the heavens like thin clothu

and spreads them out like a tent to live in.v

23 He reduces princes to nothingw

and makes judges of the earth like a wasteland.

24 They are barely planted, barely sown,

their stem hardly takes root in the ground

when he blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.x

25 “To whom will you compare me,y

or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

26 Look up and see!

Who createdz these?

He brings out the stars by number;

he calls all of them by name.aa

Because of his great power and strength,

not one of them is missing.

27 Jacob, why do you say,

and Israel, why do you assert,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my claim is ignored by my God”?a

28 Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,b

the Creator of the whole earth.

He never becomes faint or weary;

there is no limit to his understanding.c

29 He gives strength to the faint

and strengthens the powerless.

30 Youths may become faint and weary,

and young men stumble and fall,

31 but those who trust in the Lord

will renew their strength;d

they will soar on wings like eagles;e

they will run and not become weary,

they will walk and not faint.