Isaiah 40:19–31

¹⁹To an idol that a craftsman casts

and a metalworker overlays with gold

and fits with silver chains?

²⁰One lacking such an offering

chooses wood that will not rot.

He seeks a skilled craftsman

to set up an idol that will not topple.

²¹Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the foundation of the earth?

²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth;

its dwellers are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

²³He brings the princes to nothing

and makes the rulers^j of the earth meaningless.

²⁴No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown,

no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground,

than He blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.

²⁵“To whom will you liken Me,

or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high:

Who created all these?

He leads forth the starry host by number;

He calls each one by name.

Because of His great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob,

and why do you assert, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my claim is ignored by my God”?

²⁸Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary;

His understanding is beyond searching out.

²⁹He gives power to the faint

and increases the strength of the weak.

³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall.

³¹But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength;

they will mount up with wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not faint.