Isaiah 40:9-23 - ESV Online

ISAIAH 40:9-23

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The Greatness of God

Go on up to a high mountain,

O Zion, herald of good news;

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news;

lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God!” 10

Behold, the Lord God comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

behold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him. 11

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;

he will gather the lambs in his arms;

he will carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead those that are with young.
12

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

and marked off the heavens with a span,

enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure

and weighed the mountains in scales

and the hills in a balance? 13

Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,

or what man shows him his counsel? 14

Whom did he consult,

and who made him understand?

Who taught him the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding? 15

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,

and are accounted as the dust on the scales;

behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. 16

Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,

nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17

All the nations are as nothing before him,

they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18

To whom then will you liken God,

or what likeness compare with him? 19

An idol! A craftsman casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and casts for it silver chains. 20

He who is too impoverished for an offering

chooses wood that will not rot;

he seeks out a skillful craftsman

to set up an idol that will not move.
21

Do you not know? Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not 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 like a tent to dwell in; 23

who brings princes to nothing,

and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

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ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.