Isaiah 40:18–31

¹⁸And to whom will you liken God?

And to what likeness will you compare him?

¹⁹A craftsman pours out the idol,

and a goldsmithⁿ overlays it with gold,

and he smelts chains of silver.

²⁰The one who is too impoverished for a gift chooses wood that will not rot;

he seeks a skillful artisan for himself to set up an image that will not be knocked over.

²¹Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told to you from the beginning?^o

Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?

²²He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

the one who stretches out the heavens like a veil

and spreads them out like a tent to live in,

²³the one who brings^p princes to nothing;

he makes rulers of the earth like nothing.

²⁴Indeed, hardly are they planted; indeed, hardly are they sown;

indeed, hardly has their shoot taken root in the earth

when^q he blows on them and they wither,

and the tempest carries them like stubble.

²⁵“And to whom you will compare me, and am I equal?” says the holy one.

²⁶Lift your eyes up on high, and see! Who created these?

The one who brings out their host by number.

He calls all them by name.

Because he is great of power

and mighty of power, not one is missing.

²⁷Why^r do you say, Jacob,

and you speak, Israel,

“My way is hidden from Yahweh,

and my judgment is passed over by my God?”

²⁸Have you not known,

or have you not heard?

Yahweh is the God of eternity,

the creator of the ends of the earth!

He is not faint, and he does not grow weary!

There is no searching his understanding.

²⁹He gives power to the weary,

and he increases power for the powerless.^s

³⁰Even^t young people will be faint and grow weary,

and the young will stumble, exhausted.

³¹But^u those who wait for Yahweh shall renew their strength.

They shall go up with wings^v like eagles;

they shall run and not grow weary;

they shall walk and not be faint.