Isaiah 40:18–31

¹⁸To whom can you compare God?

What image can you find to resemble him?

¹⁹Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold,

overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?

²⁰Or if people are too poor for that,

they might at least choose wood that won’t decay

and a skilled craftsman

to carve an image that won’t fall down!

²¹Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand?

Are you deaf to the words of God—

the words he gave before the world began?

Are you so ignorant?

²²God sits above the circle of the earth.

The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!

He spreads out the heavens like a curtain

and makes his tent from them.

²³He judges the great people of the world

and brings them all to nothing.

²⁴They hardly get started, barely taking root,

when he blows on them and they wither.

The wind carries them off like chaff.

²⁵“To whom will you compare me?

Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶Look up into the heavens.

Who created all the stars?

He brings them out like an army, one after another,

calling each by its name.

Because of his great power and incomparable strength,

not a single one is missing.

²⁷O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles?

O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?

²⁸Have you never heard?

Have you never understood?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of all the earth.

He never grows weak or weary.

No one can measure the depths of his understanding.

²⁹He gives power to the weak

and strength to the powerless.

³⁰Even youths will become weak and tired,

and young men will fall in exhaustion.

³¹But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.

They will soar high on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary.

They will walk and not faint.