Isaiah 40:15

40:15 Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales.

He lifts ¹  the coastlands ²  as if they were dust.

Isaiah 40:17

40:17 All the nations are insignificant before him;

they are regarded as absolutely nothing. ³ 

Isaiah 40:22

40:22 He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; ⁴ 

its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. ⁵ 

He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, ⁶ 

and spreads it out ⁷  like a pitched tent. ⁸ 

[40:15]  ¹ tn Or “weighs” (NIV); NLT “picks up.”

[40:15]  ² tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV, NLT).

[40:17]  ³ tn Heb “[as derived] from nothing and unformed.”

[40:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “the circle of the earth” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[40:22]  ⁵ tn The words “before him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[40:22]  ⁶ tn The otherwise unattested noun דֹּק (doq), translated here “thin curtain,” is apparently derived from the verbal root דקק (“crush”) from which is derived the adjective דַּק (daq, “thin”; see HALOT 229 s.v. דקק). The nuance “curtain” is implied from the parallelism (see “tent” in the next line).

[40:22]  ⁷ tn The meaning of the otherwise unattested verb מָתַח (matakh, “spread out”) is determined from the parallelism (note the corresponding verb “stretch out” in the previous line) and supported by later Hebrew and Aramaic cognates. See HALOT 654 s.v. *מתה.

[40:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “like a tent [in which] to live”; NAB, NASB “like a tent to dwell (live NIV, NRSV) in.”