18. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?
19. An idol! A craftsman casts it,and a goldsmith overlays it with goldand casts for it silver chains.
20. He who is too impoverished for an offeringchooses wood that will not rot;he seeks out a skillful craftsmanto set up an idol that will not move.
21. Do you not know? Do you not hear?Has it not been told you from the beginning?Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22. It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23. who brings princes to nothing,and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25. To whom then will you compare me,that I should be like him? says the Holy One.