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Isaiah 40:12-26
New English Translation

The Lord is Incomparable

12 Who has measured out the waters[a] in the hollow of his hand,
or carefully[b] measured the sky,[c]
or carefully weighed[d] the soil of the earth,
or weighed the mountains in a balance,
or the hills on scales?[e]
13 Who comprehends[f] the mind[g] of the Lord,
or gives him instruction as his counselor?[h]
14 From whom does he receive directions?[i]
Who[j] teaches him the correct way to do things,[k]
or imparts knowledge to him,
or instructs him in skillful design?[l]
15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as dust on the scales.
He lifts[m] the coastlands[n] as if they were dust.
16 Not even Lebanon could supply enough firewood for a sacrifice;[o]
its wild animals would not provide enough burnt offerings.[p]
17 All the nations are insignificant before him;
they are regarded as absolutely nothing.[q]
18 To whom can you compare God?
To what image can you liken him?
19 A craftsman casts[r] an idol;
a metalsmith overlays it with gold
and forges silver chains for it.
20 To make a contribution one selects wood that will not rot;[s]
he then seeks a skilled craftsman
to make[t] an idol that will not fall over.
21 Do you not know?
Do you not hear?
Has it not been told to you since the very beginning?
Have you not understood from the time the earth’s foundations were made?
22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon;[u]
its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him.[v]
He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain,[w]
and spreads it out[x] like a pitched tent.[y]
23 He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing;
he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant.
24 Indeed, they are barely planted;
yes, they are barely sown;
yes, they barely take root in the earth,
and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up,
and the wind carries them away like straw.
25 “To whom can you compare me? Whom do I resemble?”
says the Holy One.[z]
26 Look up at the sky![aa]
Who created all these heavenly lights?[ab]
He is the one who leads out their ranks;[ac]
he calls them all by name.
Because of his absolute power and awesome strength,
not one of them is missing.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 40:12 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.
  2. Isaiah 40:12 tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).
  3. Isaiah 40:12 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
  4. Isaiah 40:12 tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”
  5. Isaiah 40:12 sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is, “No one but the Lord.” The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.
  6. Isaiah 40:13 tn Perhaps the verb is used metonymically here in the sense of “advises” (note the following line).
  7. Isaiah 40:13 tn In this context רוּחַ (ruakh) likely refers to the Lord’s “mind,” or mental faculties, rather than his personal Spirit (see BDB 925 s.v. 6).
  8. Isaiah 40:13 tn Heb “or [as] the man of his counsel causes him to know?”
  9. Isaiah 40:14 tn Heb “With whom did he consult, so that he gave discernment to him?”
  10. Isaiah 40:14 tn Heb “and taught him.” The vav (ו) consecutive with prefixed verbal form continues the previous line. The translation employs an interrogative pronoun for stylistic reasons.
  11. Isaiah 40:14 tn The phrase אֹרַח מִשְׁפָּט (ʾorakh mishpat) could be translated “path of justice” (so NASB, NRSV), but in this context, where creative ability and skill is in view, the phrase is better understood in the sense of “the way that is proper or fitting” (see BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 6); cf. NIV, NCV “the right way.”
  12. Isaiah 40:14 tn Heb “or the way of understanding causes him to know?”sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions in vv. 13-14 is, “No one.” In contrast to Marduk, the creator-god of Mesopotamian myths who receives help from the god of wisdom, the Lord neither needs nor receives any such advice or help. See R. Whybray, Heavenly Counsellor (SOTSMS), 64-77.
  13. Isaiah 40:15 tn Or “weighs” (NIV); NLT “picks up.”
  14. Isaiah 40:15 tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV, NLT).
  15. Isaiah 40:16 tn The words “for a sacrifice” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  16. Isaiah 40:16 sn The point is that not even the Lebanon forest could supply enough wood and animals for an adequate sacrifice to the Lord.
  17. Isaiah 40:17 tn Heb “[as derived] from nothing and unformed.”
  18. Isaiah 40:19 tn Heb “pours out”; KJV “melteth.”
  19. Isaiah 40:20 tn The first two words of the verse (הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה, hamesukkan terumah) are problematic. Some take מְסֻכָּן as an otherwise unattested Pual participle from סָכַן (sakhan, “be poor”) and translate “the one who is impoverished.” תְּרוּמָה (terumah, “contribution”) can then be taken as an adverbial accusative, “with respect to a contribution,” and the entire line translated, “the one who is too impoverished for such a contribution [i.e., the metal idol of v. 19?] selects wood that will not rot.” However, מְסֻכָּן is probably the name of a tree used in idol manufacturing (cognate with Akkadian musukkanu, cf. H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 133). מְסֻכָּן may be a scribal interpretive addition attempting to specify עֵץ (ʿets) or עֵץ may be a scribal attempt to categorize מְסֻכָּן. How an idol constitutes a תְּרוּמָה (“contribution”) is not entirely clear.
  20. Isaiah 40:20 tn Or “set up” (ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); KJV, NASB “to prepare.”
  21. Isaiah 40:22 tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
  22. Isaiah 40:22 tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
  23. Isaiah 40:22 tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).
  24. Isaiah 40:22 tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.
  25. Isaiah 40:22 tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”
  26. Isaiah 40:25 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
  27. Isaiah 40:26 tn Heb “Lift on high your eyes and see.”
  28. Isaiah 40:26 tn The words “heavenly lights” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the following lines.
  29. Isaiah 40:26 tn Heb “the one who brings out by number their host.” The stars are here likened to a huge army that the Lord leads out. Perhaps the next line pictures God calling roll. If so, the final line may be indicating that none of them dares “go AWOL.” (“AWOL” is a military acronym for “absent without leave.”)
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