9. Zion, herald of good news,go up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice loudly.Raise it, do not be afraid!Say to the cities of Judah,“Here is your God! ”
10. See, the Lord God comes with strength,and His power establishes His rule. His reward is with Him, and His gifts accompany Him.
11. He protects His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His armsand carries them in the fold of His garment.He gently leads those that are nursing.
12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his handor marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measureor weighed the mountains in a balanceand the hills in the scales?
13. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,or who gave Him His counsel?
14. Who did He consult with?Who gave Him understanding and taught Him the paths of justice?Who taught Him knowledgeand showed Him the way of understanding?
15. Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;they are considered as a speck of dust in the scales;He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
16. Lebanon is not enough for fuel,or its animals enough for a burnt offering.
17. All the nations are as nothing before Him;they are considered by Himas nothingness and emptiness.
18. Who will you compare God with?What likeness will you compare Him to?
19. To an idol? — something that a smelter casts,and a metalworker plates with goldand makes silver welds for it?
20. To one who shapes a pedestal,choosing wood that does not rot? He looks for a skilled craftsmanto set up an idol that will not fall over.
21. Do you not know? Have you not heard?Has it not been declared to youfrom the beginning?Have you not consideredthe foundations of the earth?
22. God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23. He reduces princes to nothing and makes judges of the earth irrational.
24. They are barely planted, barely sown,their stem hardly takes root in the groundwhen He blows on them and they wither,and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.
25. “Who will you compare Me to, or who is My equal? ” asks the Holy One.