9. Go up on a high mountain,messenger Zion!Raise your voice and shout,messenger Jerusalem!Raise it; don’t be afraid;say to the cities of Judah,"Here is your God!"
10. Here is the Lord God,coming with strength,with a triumphant arm,bringing his reward with himand his payment before him.
11. Like a shepherd, God will tend the flock;he will gather lambs in his armsand lift them onto his lap.He will gently guide the nursing ewes.
12. Who has measured the waters in the palm of a handor gauged the heavens with a ruleror scooped the earth’s dust up in a measuring cupor weighed the mountains on a scaleand the hills in a balance?
13. Who directed the Lord’s spiritand acted as God’s advisor?
14. Whom did he consult for enlightenment?Who taught him the path of justice and knowledgeand explained to him the way of understanding?
15. Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,and valued as dust on a scale.Look, God weighs the islands like fine dust.
16. Lebanon doesn’t have enough fuel;its animals aren’t enough for an entirely burned offering.
17. All the nations are like nothing before God.They are viewed as less than nothing and emptiness.
18. So to whom will you equate God;to what likeness will you compare him?
19. An idol? A craftsman pours it,a metalworker covers it with gold,and fashions silver chains.
20. The one who sets up an image chooses wood that won’t rotand then seeks a skilled artisanto set up an idol that won’t move.
21. Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?Wasn’t it announced to you from the beginning?Haven’t you understood since the earth was founded?
22. God inhabits the earth’s horizon—its inhabitants are like locusts—stretches out the skies like a curtainand spreads it out like a tent for dwelling.
23. God makes dignitaries uselessand the earth’s judges into nothing.
24. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,scarcely is their shoot rooted in the earthwhen God breathes on them, and they dry up;the windstorm carries them off like straw.
25. So to whom will you compare me,and who is my equal? says the holy one.
26. Look up at the sky and consider:Who created these?The one who brings out their attendants one by one,summoning each of them by name.Because of God’s great strengthand mighty power, not one is missing.