to race-horses or even cruise missiles. Princes and rulers are next in line for ridicule (vv. 21–24), with Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus in mind, no doubt. From God’s point of view, they are like grasshoppers; small, funny-looking, insignificant, powerless to change anything; or like plants, scarcely planted, when they are blown away in the wind. Finally, in case anyone should think of putting his faith in the stars, it is as well to remember that they too are mere numbers in a heavenly host, created