The sovereignty and omnipotence of God as seen in nature

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand?

Who has ruled off the heavens with a span,

comprehend the dust of the earth in a measure,

and weighed the mountains in scales,

and the hills in a balance?

13 Who has directed the mind of the Lord?

And where is the counsellor who taught him?

14 Whom did he ask for enlightenment?

Who taught him the pathway of right,

or showed him the way of true insight?

15 See! Nations are nothing but a drop on a bucket,

they count but as dust on a balance;

he lifted the isles like a mote.

16 Too small for the fires (of his altars) is Lebanon,

too few are its breasts for an offering.

17 All nations are nothing before him,

he counts them but empty nothing.

18 So to whom will you liken God,

or what likeness set over against him?

19 An imagine! A craftsman has cast it,

A goldsmith o’erlaid it with gold.

6 Each workman helps his fellow,

and says to his neighbour, ‘Set to.’

7 So the craftsman heartens the goldsmith,

the polisher says to the finisher,

‘Fine piece of soldering that!’

Then the nails down the statue securely.

20 And he would carve a wood image

makes choice of a wood that decays not;

then he seeks a craftsman of skill,

to erect for him an image,

that is warranted not to topple.

21 But know you not then of yourselves, or from hearsay?

Has this from the first not been told you?

Of this have you not been aware,

since the day that the world was founded?

22 It is he who sits throned on the vault of the earth,

so high that the dwellers thereon are like locusts;

who stretches the heavens across like a veil,

and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

23 It is he who reduces proud princes to nothing,

who turns the rulers of earth into nothing.

24 Scarce are they planted, and scarce are they sown,

and scarce has their stock then root in the earth,

when he blows upon them, and so they wither:

the whirlwind bears them away like chaff.

25 To whom will you liken me, then?

And who is my match? says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high;

see! Who has created all those?

He who brings their host out by number,

and summons each by his name:

so great his resource and so mighty his power

that not one of them fails to answer.

27 Why say you, then, O Jacob,

and Israel, why maintain

that your lot is unknown to the Lord,

your right ignored by your God?

28 Know you not of yourself or by hearsay –

the Lord is God eternal,

creator of all the earth?

He faints not, neither is weary,

unsearchable is his wisdom;

29 he gives power to the weary,

and increase of strength to the feeble.

30 Youths may faint and grow weary,

and young men may stumble and fall;

31 but those who wait for the Lord

will find their strength renewed;

they will put forth pinions like eagles.

They will run, and not grow weary;

they will walk, and not be faint.