Isaiah 40:12–26

¹²Who has measured the oceans by using the palm of his hand?

Who has used the width of his hand to mark off the sky?

Who has measured out the dust of the earth in a basket?

Who has weighed the mountains on scales?

Who has weighed the hills in a balance?

¹³Who can ever understand what is in the Lord’s mind?

Who can ever give him advice?

¹⁴Did the Lord have to ask anyone to help him understand?

Did he have to ask someone to teach him the right way?

Who taught him what he knows?

Who showed him how to understand?

¹⁵The nations are only a drop in a bucket to him.

He considers them as nothing but dust on the scales.

He weighs the islands as if they were only fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon doesn’t have enough trees to keep his altar fires burning.

It doesn’t have enough animals to sacrifice as burnt offerings to him.

¹⁷To him, all of the nations don’t amount to anything.

He considers them to be worthless.

In fact, they are less than nothing in his sight.

¹⁸So who will you compare God to?

Is there any other god like him?

¹⁹Will you compare him to a statue of a god?

Any skilled worker can make a statue.

Then another worker covers it with gold

and makes silver chains for it.

²⁰But someone who is too poor to bring that kind of offering

will choose some wood that won’t rot.

Then he looks for a skilled worker.

He pays the worker to make a statue of a god that won’t fall over.

²¹Don’t you know who made everything?

Haven’t you heard about him?

Hasn’t it been told to you from the beginning?

Haven’t you understood it ever since the earth was made?

²²God sits on his throne high above the earth.

Its people look like grasshoppers to him.

He spreads the heavens out like a cover.

He sets it up like a tent to live in.

²³He takes the power of princes away from them.

He reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

²⁴They are planted.

They are scattered like seeds.

They put down roots in the ground.

But as soon as that happens, God blows on them and they dry up.

Then a windstorm sweeps them away like straw.

²⁵“So who will you compare me to?

Who is equal to me?” says the Holy One.

²⁶Look up toward the sky.

Who created everything you see?

The Lord causes the stars to come out at night one by one.

He gives each one of them a name.

His power and strength are great.

So none of the stars is missing.