Isaiah 40:18-26

Christian Standard Bible

¹⁸ With whom will you compare God?
What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?^(A)
19 An idol?—something that a smelter casts
and a metalworker plates with gold
and makes silver chains for?^(B)
20 A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal
that will not rot.^[a]
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not fall over.^(C)

²¹ Do you not know?^(D)
Have you not heard?
Has it not been declared to you
from the beginning?
Have you not considered
the foundations of the earth?^(E)
22 God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.^(F)
He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth^(G)
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.^(H)
23 He reduces princes to nothing^(I)
and makes judges of the earth like a wasteland.
²⁴ They are barely planted, barely sown,
their stem hardly takes root in the ground
when he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.^(J)

²⁵ “To whom will you compare me,^(K)
or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
²⁶ Look up and see!
Who created^(L) these?
He brings out the stars by number;
he calls all of them by name.^(M)
Because of his great power and strength,
not one of them is missing.