¹⁸ To whom then will you ^(A)liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
^19 (B)The workman molds an image,
The goldsmith overspreads it with gold,
And the silversmith casts silver chains.
²⁰ Whoever is too impoverished for such ^[a]a contribution
Chooses a tree that will not rot;
He seeks for himself a skillful workman
^(C)To prepare a carved image that will not totter.

^21 (D)Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
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 ^(E)stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a ^(F)tent to dwell in.
²³ He ^[b]brings the ^(G)princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless.

²⁴ Scarcely shall they be planted,
Scarcely shall they be sown,
Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,
When He will also blow on them,
And they will wither,
And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

²⁵ “To^(H) whom then will you liken Me,
Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.