Isaiah 40:19-31 ▼

19 As for the graven images, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

20 He who is too impoverished to make such a contribution Chooses a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman To prepare a graven image that will not be shaken.

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is He who inhabits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; It is He who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to inhabit.

23 It is He who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth utterly formless.

24 Scarcely have they been planted; Scarcely have they been sown; Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.

25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His vigor and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, And the justice due me passes by my God”?

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the weary, And to him who lacks vigor He increases might.

30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And choice young men stumble badly,

31 Yet those who hope in Yahweh Will gain new power; They will mount up with wings like eagles; They will run and not get tired; They will walk and not become weary.