Isaiah 40:12-26

English Standard Version

^12 (A)Who 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?
^13 (B)Who has measured^[a] the Spirit of the Lord,
    or what man shows him his counsel?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult,
    and who made him understand?
^(C)Who taught him the path of justice,
    and taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
    and are accounted ^(D)as the dust on the scales;
    behold, he takes up ^(E)the coastlands like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
    nor are ^(F)its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
^17 (G)All the nations are as nothing before him,
    they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

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

^21 (L)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?
²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are ^(M)like grasshoppers;
^(N)who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
^23 (O)who brings princes to nothing,
    and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

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

^25 (Q)To whom then will you compare me,
    that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
    who created these?
^(R)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.