Isaiah 40:18-26

Common English Bible

¹⁸ So to whom will you equate God;
    to what likeness will you compare him?
¹⁹ An idol? A craftsman pours it,
    a metalworker covers it with gold,
    and fashions silver chains.
²⁰ The one who sets up an image chooses wood that won’t rot^[a]
    and then seeks a skilled artisan
    to set up an idol that won’t move.
²¹ Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
    Wasn’t it announced to you from the beginning?
    Haven’t you understood since the earth was founded?
²² God inhabits the earth’s horizon—
    its inhabitants are like locusts—
    stretches out the skies like a curtain
    and spreads it out like a tent for dwelling.
²³     God makes dignitaries useless
    and the earth’s judges into nothing.
²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
    scarcely is their shoot rooted in the earth
    when God breathes on them, and they dry up;
    the windstorm carries them off like straw.
²⁵ So to whom will you compare me,
    and who is my equal? says the holy one.