¹⁸ And to whom will you liken God?
    And to what likeness will you compare him?
¹⁹ A craftsman pours out the idol,
    and a goldsmith^[a] overlays it with gold,
        and he smelts chains of silver.
²⁰ The one who is too impoverished for a gift chooses wood that will not rot;
    he seeks a skillful artisan for himself to set up an image that will not be knocked over.
²¹ Have you not known?
    Have you not heard?
Has it not been told to you from the beginning?^[b]
    Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?
²² He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth,
    and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
the one who stretches out the heavens like a veil
    and spreads them out like a tent to live in,
²³ the one who brings^[c] princes to nothing;
    he makes rulers of the earth like nothing.
²⁴ Indeed, hardly are they planted; indeed, hardly are they sown;
    indeed, hardly has their shoot taken root in the earth
when^[d] he blows on them and they wither,
    and the tempest carries them like stubble.