Who gauged the water in his palm,
surveyed the heavens with his span,
Measured the world’s earth by the gallon,
weighed the mountains with a balance,
the hills with scales?
Who directed Yahweh’s spirit,
or as the person to give him counsel made it known to him?
With whom did he take counsel,
so that he helped him understand,
taught him the way to exercise authority,
Taught him knowledge,
made known to him the way of understanding?
There, nations count like a drop from a pan,
like a cloud on scales; there,
foreign shores are like a fine cloud that rises.
Lebanon – there’s not enough to burn up,
its animals – there aren’t enough as a burnt offering.
All the nations are like nothing over against him;
they count as less than naught, emptiness, to him.

So to whom would you compare God,
or what comparison would you line up for him?
The image, which a craftworker casts? –
a smith beats it out with gold,
and a smith with silver chains.
Is it sissoo fit for tribute,
wood that doesn’t rot,
that someone chooses?
He seeks for himself a smart craftworker
to set up an image so it doesn’t slip.

You acknowledge, don’t you,
you listen, don’t you?
It’s been told you from the beginning, hasn’t it,
you’ve understood earth’s foundations, haven’t you?
There’s one who sits above earth’s horizon,
with its inhabitants like grasshoppers,
One who stretched out the heavens like net,
spread them like a tent for sitting in,
One who turns sovereigns into nothing,
makes earth’s authorities pure emptiness.
They’re really not planted, really not sown,
their stem is really not rooting in the earth,
Then he blows on them and they shrivel,
and a hurricane carries them off like straw.

So to whom would you compare me,
so I could be similar (says the Sacred One)?
Lift your eyes on high and see
– who created these?
The one who takes out their army by number
calls to all of them by name.
Because of the greatness of his power,
and as one firm in energy, not one lags behind.

Why do you say, Ya’aqob, and speak, Yisra’el,
‘My way was hidden from Yahweh,
a ruling for me passes away from my God’?
Haven’t you acknowledged,
or haven’t you listened?
Yahweh is God of the ages,
creator of earth’s ends.
He doesn’t get faint or weary;
there’s no searching out of his understanding.
He gives energy to the faint,
and to the one who has no resources he gives much strength.
Youths may get faint and weary,
young men may totally collapse.
But people who hope in Yahweh get new energy,
they grow pinions like eagles.
They run and don’t get weary,
they walk and don’t faint.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert