Isaiah 40:14-31

English Standard Version

¹⁴Whom did he consult,
    and who made him understand?
^(A)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 ^(B)as the dust on the scales;
    behold, he takes up ^(C)the coastlands like fine dust.
¹⁶Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
    nor are ^(D)its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
¹⁷^(E)All the nations are as nothing before him,
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸^(F)To whom then will you liken God,
    ^(G)or what likeness compare with him?
¹⁹^(H)An idol! A craftsman casts it,
    and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
    and casts for it silver chains.
²⁰^(I)He who is too impoverished for an offering
    chooses wood^[a] that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
    to set up an idol that will not move.

²¹^(J)Do you not know? Do you not hear?
    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 ^(K)like grasshoppers;
^(L)who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
²³^(M)who brings princes to nothing,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

²⁴Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
^(N)and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵^(O)To 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?
^(P)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.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob,
    and speak, O Israel,
^(Q)“My way is hidden from the Lord,
    ^(R)and my right is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is ^(S)the everlasting God,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
    ^(T)his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹He gives power to the faint,
    and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰Even youths shall faint and be weary,
    and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹but ^(U)they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
    they shall mount up with wings ^(V)like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint.