Isaiah 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?

◄ Isaiah 40:12 ►

Parallel Verses

Cross References

Hebrews 1:10
And, You, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of your hands:

Job 38:5
Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line on it?

Job 38:8
Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

Psalm 102:25
Of old have you laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of your hands.

Psalm 102:26
They shall perish, but you shall endure: yes, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a clothing shall you change them, and they shall be changed:

Isaiah 48:13
My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spanned the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.

Jeremiah 31:37
Thus said the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, said the LORD.

Amos 4:13
For, see, he that forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, that makes the morning darkness, and treads on the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

40:12-17 All created beings shrink to nothing in comparison with the Creator. When the Lord, by his Spirit, made the world, none directed his Spirit, or gave advice what to do, or how to do it. The nations, in comparison of him, are as a drop which remains in the bucket, compared with the vast ocean; or as the small dust in the balance, which does not turn it, compared with all the earth. This magnifies God's love to the world, that, though it is of such small account and value with him, yet, for the redemption of it, he gave his only-begotten Son, Joh 3:16. The services of the church can make no addition to him. Our souls must have perished for ever, if the only Son of the Father had not given himself for us.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

12. Lest the Jews should suppose that He who was just before described as a "shepherd" is a mere man, He is now described as God.

Who—Who else but God could do so? Therefore, though the redemption and restoration of His people, foretold here, was a work beyond man's power, they should not doubt its fulfilment since all things are possible to Him who can accurately regulate the proportion of the waters as if He had measured them with His hand (compare Isa 40:15). But Maurer translates: "Who can measure," &c., that is, How immeasurable are the works of God? The former is a better explanation (Job 28:25; Pr 30:4).

span—the space from the end of the thumb to the end of the middle finger extended; God measures the vast heavens as one would measure a small object with his span.

dust of the earth—All the earth is to Him but as a few grains of dust contained in a small measure (literally, "the third part of a larger measure").

hills in a balance—adjusted in their right proportions and places, as exactly as if He had weighed them out.