13. Who is able to advise the Spirit of the lord?Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
14. Has the lord ever needed anyone’s advice?Does he need instruction about what is good?Did someone teach him what is rightor show him the path of justice?
15. No, for all the nations of the worldare but a drop in the bucket.They are nothing morethan dust on the scales.He picks up the whole earthas though it were a grain of sand.
16. All the wood in Lebanon’s forestsand all Lebanon’s animals would not be enoughto make a burnt offering worthy of our God.
17. The nations of the world are worth nothing to him.In his eyes they count for less than nothing—mere emptiness and froth.
18. To whom can you compare God?What image can you find to resemble him?
19. Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold,overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?
20. Or if people are too poor for that,they might at least choose wood that won’t decayand a skilled craftsmanto carve an image that won’t fall down!
21. Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand?Are you deaf to the words of God—the words he gave before the world began?Are you so ignorant?
22. God sits above the circle of the earth.The people below seem like grasshoppers to him!He spreads out the heavens like a curtainand makes his tent from them.