40:13 Who comprehends 1 the mind 2 of the Lord,
or gives him instruction as his counselor? 3
40:12 Who has measured out the waters 4 in the hollow of his hand,
or carefully 5 measured the sky, 6
or carefully weighed 7 the soil of the earth,
or weighed the mountains in a balance,
or the hills on scales? 8
1 tn Perhaps the verb is used metonymically here in the sense of “advises” (note the following line).
2 tn In this context רוּחַ (ruakh) likely refers to the Lord’s “mind,” or mental faculties, rather than his personal Spirit (see BDB 925 s.v.).
3 tn Heb “or [as] the man of his counsel causes him to know?”
4 tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.
5 tn Heb “with a span.” A “span” was the distance between the ends of the thumb and the little finger of the spread hand” (BDB 285 s.v. זֶרֶת).
6 tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.
7 tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”
8 sn The implied answer to the rhetorical questions of v. 12 is “no one but the Lord. The Lord, and no other, created the world. Like a merchant weighing out silver or commodities on a scale, the Lord established the various components of the physical universe in precise proportions.