Isaias

7 * * * * *

8 The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen; but the word of our God abideth for ever.

9 Go up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Zion; lift up thy voice with thy strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift ye up (your voice), fear not; say thou to the cities of Judah, Behold your God.

10 Behold, the Lord cometh with strength, and his arm with power: behold, his reward (is) with him, and his work before him.

11 As a shepherd shall he tend his flock, and with his arm shall he gather lambs, and shall comfort those with young.

12 Who measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth with a handful? Who hath weighed the mountains with a scale, and the valleys with a balance?

13 Who hath understood the mind of the Lord, and who was his fellow-counsellor, that shall teach him?

14 Or with whom shared be his counsel, and he taught him? or who showed him judgment? or who showed him the way of understanding? or who gave to him at the first, and it shall be rendered him again? ’

15 If all the nations had been reckoned as a drop from a jar, or as the turn of a scale, shall they be reckoned even as spittle?

16 And Lebanon is not sufficient for burning, and all the (four footed) beasts are not sufficient for a (whole) burnt offering.

17 And all the nations are as nothing, and are reckoned for nothing.

18 To whom liken ye the Lord, and with what likeness liken ye him?

19 Doth the craftsman make an image, or a goldsmith cast gold, and gild it over? doth he construct of it a likeness?

20 For a craftsman chooseth out a tree which doth not rot, and seeketh cunningly how to set up an image there: and that it may not be moved.

21 Will ye not learn? will ye not hear? was it not proclaimed to you from the beginning? have ye not learnt the foundations of the earth?

22 (It is) he that holdeth the circle of the earth, and they that dwell in it are as locusts; he that setteth up the heaven as a canopy, and stretcheth it out as a tent to dwell in,

23 He that giveth rulers to rule as nothing, and he made the earth as nothing. ’

24 For they shall not sow, nor plant, neither shall their root be rooted in the earth; he breatheth upon them, and they are withered, and a tempest shall seize upon them as brushwood.