¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
    and marked off the sky with his span,
    and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket,
    and weighed the mountains in scales,
    and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has directed Yahweh’s Spirit,
    or has taught him as his counselor?
¹⁴ Who did he take counsel with,
    and who instructed him,
    and taught him in the path of justice,
    and taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,
    and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance.
    Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
¹⁶ Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
    nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are like nothing before him.
    They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God?
    Or what likeness will you compare to him?
¹⁹ A workman has cast an image,
    and the goldsmith overlays it with gold,
    and casts silver chains for it.
²⁰ He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot.
    He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.

²¹ Haven’t you known?
    Haven’t you heard?
    Haven’t you been told from the beginning?
    Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?
²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
    who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
    and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in,
²³     who brings princes to nothing,
    who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
²⁴ They are planted scarcely.
    They are sown scarcely.
    Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.
    He merely blows on them, and they wither,
    and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

²⁵ “To whom then will you liken me?
    Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high,
    and see who has created these,
    who brings out their army by number.
    He calls them all by name.
    by the greatness of his might,
    and because he is strong in power,
    not one is lacking.

²⁷ Why do you say, Jacob,
    and speak, Israel,
    “My way is hidden from Yahweh,
    and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”
²⁸ Haven’t you known?
    Haven’t you heard?
    The everlasting God, Yahweh,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint.
    He isn’t weary.
    His understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the weak.
    He increases the strength of him who has no might.
³⁰ Even the youths faint and get weary,
    and the young men utterly fall;
³¹     but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.
    They will mount up with wings like eagles.
    They will run, and not be weary.
    They will walk, and not faint.

¹⁰ “You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh,
    “With my servant whom I have chosen;
    that you may know and believe me,
    and understand that I am he.
Before me there was no God formed,
    neither will there be after me.
¹¹ I myself am Yahweh.
    Besides me, there is no savior.
¹² I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown,
    and there was no strange god among you.
Therefore you are my witnesses”,
    says Yahweh, “and I am God.
¹³ Yes, since the day was, I am he.
    There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.
    I will work, and who can hinder it?”

⁶ This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel,
    and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says:
“I am the first, and I am the last;
    and besides me there is no God.
⁷ Who is like me?
    Who will call,
    and will declare it,
    and set it in order for me,
    since I established the ancient people?
Let them declare the things that are coming,
    and that will happen.
⁸ Don’t fear,
    neither be afraid.
Haven’t I declared it to you long ago,
    and shown it?
You are my witnesses.
    Is there a God besides me?
Indeed, there is not.
    I don’t know any other Rock.”

⁹ Everyone who makes a carved image is vain.
    The things that they delight in will not profit.
    Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
¹⁰ Who has fashioned a god,
    or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?
¹¹ Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed;
    and the workmen are mere men.
Let them all be gathered together.
    Let them stand up.
    They will fear.
    They will be put to shame together.

¹² The blacksmith takes an ax,
    works in the coals,
    fashions it with hammers,
    and works it with his strong arm.
He is hungry,
    and his strength fails;
he drinks no water,
    and is faint.
¹³ The carpenter stretches out a line.
    He marks it out with a pencil.
    He shapes it with planes.
    He marks it out with compasses,
    and shapes it like the figure of a man,
    with the beauty of a man,
    to reside in a house.
¹⁴ He cuts down cedars for himself,
    and takes the cypress and the oak,
    and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest.
He plants a cypress tree,
    and the rain nourishes it.
¹⁵ Then it will be for a man to burn;
    and he takes some of it, and warms himself.
    Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread.
Yes, he makes a god, and worships it;
    he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
¹⁶ He burns part of it in the fire.
    With part of it, he eats meat.
    He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.
Yes, he warms himself,
    and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.”
¹⁷ The rest of it he makes into a god,
    even his engraved image.
He bows down to it and worships,
    and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!”

¹⁸ They don’t know, neither do they consider:
    for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see;
    and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
¹⁹ No one thinks,
    neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
    “I have burned part of it in the fire.
    Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals.
    I have roasted meat and eaten it.
    Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination?
    Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”
²⁰ He feeds on ashes.
    A deceived heart has turned him aside;
    and he can’t deliver his soul,
    nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

⁵ “To whom will you compare me, and consider my equal,
    and compare me, as if we were the same?
⁶ Some pour out gold from the bag,
    and weigh silver in the balance.
They hire a goldsmith,
    and he makes it a god.
They fall down—
    yes, they worship.
⁷ They bear it on their shoulder.
    They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there.
    It cannot move from its place.
Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer.
    It cannot save him out of his trouble.

⁸ “Remember this, and show yourselves men.
    Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.
⁹ Remember the former things of old:
    for I am God, and there is no other.
    I am God, and there is none like me.
¹⁰ I declare the end from the beginning,
    and from ancient times things that are not yet done.
I say: My counsel will stand,
    and I will do all that I please.
¹¹ I call a ravenous bird from the east,
    the man of my counsel from a far country.
Yes, I have spoken.
    I will also bring it to pass.
I have planned.
    I will also do it.

³ “But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress,
    you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.
⁴ Whom do you mock?
    Against whom do you make a wide mouth
    and stick out your tongue?
Aren’t you children of disobedience
    and offspring of falsehood,
⁵ you who inflame yourselves among the oaks,
    under every green tree;
who kill the children in the valleys,
    under the clefts of the rocks?
⁶ Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion.
    They, they are your lot.
You have even poured a drink offering to them.
    You have offered an offering.
    Shall I be appeased for these things?
⁷ On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed.
    You also went up there to offer sacrifice.
⁸ You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts,
    for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me,
    and have gone up.
You have enlarged your bed
    and made you a covenant with them.
    You loved what you saw on their bed.
⁹ You went to the king with oil,
    increased your perfumes,
    sent your ambassadors far off,
    and degraded yourself even to Sheol.^[a]
10 You were wearied with the length of your ways;
    yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’
You found a reviving of your strength;
    therefore you weren’t faint.

¹¹ “Whom have you dreaded and feared,
    so that you lie,
    and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart?
Haven’t I held my peace for a long time,
    and you don’t fear me?

⁷ I will tell of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh
    and the praises of Yahweh,
    according to all that Yahweh has given to us,
and the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
    which he has given to them according to his mercies,
    and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
⁸ For he said, “Surely, they are my people,
    children who will not deal falsely;”
    so he became their Savior.
⁹ In all their affliction he was afflicted,
    and the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them.
    He bore them,
    and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰ But they rebelled
    and grieved his Holy Spirit.
Therefore he turned and became their enemy,
    and he himself fought against them.

¹¹ Then he remembered the days of old,
    Moses and his people, saying,
“Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock?
    Where is he who put his Holy Spirit among them?”
¹² Who caused his glorious arm to be at Moses’ right hand?
    Who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
¹³ Who led them through the depths,
    like a horse in the wilderness,
    so that they didn’t stumble?
¹⁴ As the livestock that go down into the valley,
    Yahweh’s Spirit caused them to rest.
    So you led your people to make yourself a glorious name.