Isaiah 40:18–31

¹⁸To whom, then, will you liken God,

or what likeness compare with him?^*

¹⁹An idol? A workman casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and casts for it silver chains.^*

²⁰As a gift one chooses mulberry wood^r

—wood that will not rot—

then seeks out a skilled artisan

to set up an image that will not topple.^*

²¹Have you not known? Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?^*

²²It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

who stretches out the heavens like a curtain

and spreads them like a tent to live in,^*

²³who brings princes to naught

and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.^*

²⁴Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,

scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,

when he blows upon them, and they wither,

and the tempest carries them off like stubble.^*

²⁵To whom, then, will you compare me,

or who is my equal? says the Holy One.^*

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see:

Who created these?

He who brings out their host and numbers them,

calling them all by name;

because he is great in strength,

mighty in power,

not one is missing.^*

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob,

and assert, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my right is disregarded by my God”?^*

²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.^*

²⁹He gives power to the faint

and strengthens the powerless.^*

³⁰Even youths will faint and be weary,

and the young will fall exhausted,

³¹but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.^*