Who has measured the waters in the palm of a hand
    or gauged the heavens with a ruler
    or scooped the earth’s dust up in a measuring cup
    or weighed the mountains on a scale
    and the hills in a balance?
Who directed the Lord’s spirit
    and acted as God’s advisor?
Whom did he consult for enlightenment?
    Who taught him the path of justice and knowledge
    and explained to him the way of understanding?
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,
    and valued as dust on a scale.
    Look, God weighs the islands like fine dust.
Lebanon doesn’t have enough fuel;
    its animals aren’t enough for an entirely burned offering.
All the nations are like nothing before God.
    They are viewed as less than nothing and emptiness.

So to whom will you equate God;
    to what likeness will you compare him?
An idol? A craftsman pours it,
    a metalworker covers it with gold,
    and fashions silver chains.
The one who sets up an image chooses wood that won’t rot
    and then seeks a skilled artisan
    to set up an idol that won’t move. 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?
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.
    God makes dignitaries useless
    and the earth’s judges into nothing.
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.
So to whom will you compare me,
    and who is my equal? says the holy one.

Look up at the sky and consider:
    Who created these?
    The one who brings out their attendants one by one,
    summoning each of them by name.
Because of God’s great strength
    and mighty power, not one is missing.
Why do you say, Jacob,
    and declare, Israel,
    “My way is hidden from the Lord,
    my God ignores my predicament”?
Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
    The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the creator of the ends of the earth.
    He doesn’t grow tired or weary.
His understanding is beyond human reach,
    giving power to the tired
    and reviving the exhausted.
Youths will become tired and weary,
    young men will certainly stumble;
    but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength;
    they will fly up on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not be tired;
    they will walk and not be weary.