Isaiah 40:12-26

New International Reader's Version

¹² Who has measured the oceans by using the palm of his hand?
    Who has used the width of his hand to mark off the sky?
Who has measured out the dust of the earth in a basket?
    Who has weighed the mountains on scales?
    Who has weighed the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who can ever understand the Spirit of the Lord?
    Who can ever give him advice?
¹⁴ Did the Lord have to ask anyone to help him understand?
    Did he have to ask someone to teach him the right way?
Who taught him what he knows?
    Who showed him how to understand?

¹⁵ The nations are only a drop in a bucket to him.
    He considers them as nothing but dust on the scales.
    He weighs the islands as if they were only fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon doesn’t have enough trees to keep his altar fires burning.
    It doesn’t have enough animals to sacrifice as burnt offerings to him.
¹⁷ To him, all the nations don’t amount to anything.
    He considers them to be worthless.
    In fact, they are less than nothing in his sight.

¹⁸ So who will you compare God with?
    Is there any other god like him?
¹⁹ Will you compare him with a statue of a god?
    Anyone who works with metal can make a statue.
Then another worker covers it with gold
    and makes silver chains for it.
²⁰ But someone who is too poor to bring that kind of offering
    will choose some wood that won’t rot.
Then they look for a skilled worker.
    They pay the worker to make a statue of a god that won’t fall over.

²¹ Don’t you know who made everything?
    Haven’t you heard about him?
Hasn’t it been told to you from the beginning?
    Haven’t you understood it ever since the earth was made?
²² God sits on his throne high above the earth.
    Its people look like grasshoppers to him.
He spreads out the heavens like a cover.
    He sets it up like a tent to live in.
²³ He takes the power of princes away from them.
    He reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
²⁴ They are planted.
    They are scattered like seeds.
    They put down roots in the ground.
But as soon as that happens, God blows on them and they dry up.
    Then a windstorm sweeps them away like straw.

²⁵ “So who will you compare me with?
    Who is equal to me?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ Look up toward the sky.
    Who created everything you see?
The Lord causes the stars to come out at night one by one.
    He calls out each one of them by name.
His power and strength are great.
    So none of the stars is missing.