Isaiah 40:12–26

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

and marked off the heavens with a span,

enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure

and weighed the mountains in scales

and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,

or as his counselor has instructed him?

¹⁴Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,

and who taught him the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,

and are accounted as the dust on the scales;

behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,

nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before him,

they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God,

or what likeness compare with him?

¹⁹The idol! a workman casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold,

and casts for it silver chains.

²⁰He who is impoverished chooses for an offering

wood that will not rot;

he seeks out a skilful craftsman

to set up an image that will not move.

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 dwell in;

²³who brings princes to nought,

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,

that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

He who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name;

by the greatness of his might,

and because he is strong in power not one is missing.