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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Isaiah 40:15

Look, all the nations in the world are like one small drop in the bucket. If the Lord took all the faraway nations and put them on his scales, they would be like small pieces of dust.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Balances;   Bucket;   God Continued...;   Idolatry;   Readings, Select;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Isaiah;   Isle, Island;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - God;   Power;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Nations, the;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Bucket;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Shepherd;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Bucket;   Dust;   God;   Isaiah;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - House;   Micah, Book of;   Righteousness;   Servant of the Lord;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Baruch, Apocalypse of;   Inspiration and Revelation;   Omnipotence;   Wisdom of Solomon;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Bucket;   Drop;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Balance;   Bucket;   Take;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Abraham, Testament of;   Balance;   Drinking-Vessels;   Shabbat Naḥamu;   Well;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for March 15;   Every Day Light - Devotion for December 23;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;they are considered as a speck of dust on the scales;he lifts up the islands like fine dust.
Hebrew Names Version
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: Behold, he takes up the isles as a very little thing.
King James Version
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
English Standard Version
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
New American Standard Bible
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
New Century Version
The nations are like one small drop in a bucket; they are no more than the dust on his measuring scales. To him the islands are no more than fine dust on his scales.
Amplified Bible
In fact, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Now look, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
World English Bible
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: Behold, he takes up the isles as a very little thing.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the dust of the balance: beholde, he taketh away the yles as a litle dust.
Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,And are counted as a speck of dust on the scales;Behold, He lifts up the coastlands like fine dust.
Berean Standard Bible
Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered a speck of dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
Contemporary English Version
To the Lord , all nations are merely a drop in a bucket or dust on balance scales; all of the islands are but a handful of sand.
Complete Jewish Bible
The nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count like a grain of dust on the scales. The islands weigh as little as specks of dust.
Darby Translation
Behold, the nations are esteemed as a drop of the bucket, and as the fine dust on the scales; behold, he taketh up the isles as an atom.
George Lamsa Translation
Behold, the nations are like a drop out of a bucket, and are counted as the dipping of the balance; behold, the isles shall be cast away like fine dust.
Good News Translation
To the Lord the nations are nothing, no more than a drop of water; the distant islands are as light as dust.
Lexham English Bible
Look! The nations are like a drop from a bucket, and they are counted like dust of the balances! Look! He weighs the islands like a thin covering.
Literal Translation
Lo, nations are as a drop from a bucket, and are reckoned as dust of the scales. Lo, He takes up coasts as a little thing.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, all people are in coparison of him, as a droppe to a bucketfull, and are counted as the leest thinge yt the balaunce weyeth. Beholde, ye Iles are in comparison of him, as the shadowe of the Sonne beame.
American Standard Version
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
Bible in Basic English
See, the nations are to him like a drop hanging from a bucket, and like the small dust in the scales: he takes up the islands like small dust.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold the isles are as a mote in weight.
King James Version (1611)
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, hee taketh vp the yles as a very litle thing.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Beholde, all people are in comparison of hym as a droppe of a bucket full, and are counted as the least thyng that the ballaunce wayeth: yea and the Isles he taketh vp as a very litle thyng.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
since all the nations are counted as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a balance, and shall be counted as spittle?
English Revised Version
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! folkis ben as a drope of a boket, and ben arettid as the tunge of a balaunce; lo!
Update Bible Version
Look, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: Look, he takes up the isles as a very little thing.
Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, the nations [are] as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
New English Translation
Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales. He lifts the coastlands as if they were dust.
New King James Version
Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.
New Living Translation
No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.
New Life Bible
See, the nations are like a drop in a pail. Their weight is like a little piece of dust. See, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
New Revised Standard
Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as dust on the scales; see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo! nations, Are us a drop on a bucket, And as fine dust on a balance, are accounted, - Lo! islands, like an atom, can he hoist;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold the islands are as a little dust.
Revised Standard Version
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
Young's Literal Translation
Lo, nations as a drop from a bucket, And as small dust of the balance, have been reckoned, Lo, isles as a small thing He taketh up.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.

Contextual Overview

12 Who measured the oceans in the palm of his hand? Who used his hand to measure the sky? Who used a bowl to measure all the dust of the earth? Who used scales to measure the mountains and hills? 13 Who could know the Lord 's mind? Who could be his teacher or give him advice? 14 Did the Lord ask for anyone's help? Did anyone teach him to be fair? Did anyone teach him knowledge? Did anyone teach him to be wise? 15 Look, all the nations in the world are like one small drop in the bucket. If the Lord took all the faraway nations and put them on his scales, they would be like small pieces of dust. 16 All the trees in Lebanon are not enough to burn on the altar for the Lord. And all the animals in Lebanon are not enough to kill for a sacrifice. 17 Compared to God, all the nations of the world are nothing. Compared to him, they are worth nothing at all.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the nations: Isaiah 40:22, Job 34:14, Job 34:15, Jeremiah 10:10

the isles: Isaiah 11:11, Isaiah 41:5, Isaiah 59:18, Isaiah 66:19, Genesis 10:5, Daniel 11:18, Zephaniah 2:11

Reciprocal: Psalms 50:21 - thoughtest Psalms 62:9 - lighter Psalms 113:4 - high Daniel 4:35 - all

Cross-References

Genesis 14:13
One of the men who had escaped went to Abram the Hebrew and told him what happened. Abram was camped near the trees of Mamre the Amorite. Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner had made an agreement to help each other, and they had also signed an agreement to help Abram.
Genesis 39:20
So Potiphar put Joseph into the prison where the king's enemies were held, and that is where Joseph remained.
Genesis 40:3
so he put them in the same prison as Joseph. Potiphar, the commander of Pharaoh's guards, was in charge of this prison.
Genesis 40:4
The commander put the two prisoners under Joseph's care. The two men continued to stay in prison for some time.
Genesis 40:8
The two men answered, "We both had dreams last night, but we don't understand what we dreamed. There is no one to explain the dreams to us." Joseph said to them, "God is the only one who can understand and explain dreams. So I beg you, tell me your dreams."
Genesis 40:10
On the vine there were three branches. I watched the branches grow flowers and then become grapes.
Genesis 40:11
I was holding Pharaoh's cup, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into the cup. Then I gave the cup to Pharaoh."
Genesis 40:12
Then Joseph said, "I will explain the dream to you. The three branches mean three days.
Genesis 40:17
In the top basket there were all kinds of baked food for the king, but birds were eating this food."
Genesis 40:18
Joseph answered, "I will tell you what the dream means. The three baskets mean three days.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket,.... Not only the Chaldeans and Babylonians, and other nations most known, and most troublesome to the Jews, but all the nations of the world; these, in comparison of God, of his infinite and immense Being, are but as a drop of water that hangs upon the bucket, or falls from it, when water is drawn by it, or is left in it, when poured out of it; which is nothing in comparison of the well out of which the water is drawn, or even of the water in the bucket drawn out of it:

and are accounted as the small dust of the balance; that is, they are accounted nothing of with God, comparatively speaking, any more than the small dust which hangs upon the balance, and gives it no weight, nor turn one way or another, and so is of no consideration. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, "as the turn of the scale"; and so the Targum; but the other version more strongly expresses the sense:

behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing; by which are meant not merely islands, properly so called, which are encompassed by the sea, but all such countries which the Jews used to go to by sea, for all such they called isles; these the Lord can take up, or cast away u, as some render the word; toss them about, overturn and destroy, as a man may take up the most minute thing and cast it from him. The Targum renders it,

"as chaff which flies away;''

or, as others translate it,

"as the ashes of a coal which fly away.''

The word may signify any light thing, as chaff, straw, stubble, feathers, down of thistles, which are easily carried away with the least force; and so Vitringa renders the words, "behold, the isles are as some little thing which flies away".

u יטול "projiciet", Pagninus, Tigurine version; so R. Jonah in Ben Melech.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, the nations - All the nations of the earth. This is designed to show the greatness of God, in comparison with that which strikes man as great - a mighty nation; and the main object seems to be, to show that God could accomplish his purposes without their aid, and that they could not resist him in the execution of his plans. If they were as nothing in comparison with him, how easily could he execute his purposes! If they were as nothing, how little could they resist the execution of his plans!

Are as a drop of a bucket - In comparison with him; or are so esteemed by him. The drop that falls from the bucket in drawing water is a trifle. It has no power, and compared with the waters of the ocean it is as nothing. So small is the power of the nations in comparison with God. “And are counted.” Are thought of, regarded, esteemed by him, or in comparison with him.

As the small dust of the balance - The small, fine dust which collects on the best finished and most accurate balance or scales, and which has no effect in making the scales uneven, or making either side preponderate. Nothing can be a more striking representation of the fact that the nations are regarded as nothing in comparison with God.

Behold, he taketh up the isles - Or he is able to do it; he could remove the isles as the fine dust is driven before the whirlwind. A more literal translation of this passage would be, ‘Lo, the isles are as the dust which is taken up,’ or which one takes up; that is, which is taken up, and carried away by the wind. There is something unusual in the expression that God takes up the isles, and the idea is rather that the isles in his sight are regarded as the fine dust which the wind sweeps away. So the Chaldee renders it, ‘Lo, the isles are like ashes which the wind drives away.’ The word ‘isles,’ Vitringa and Jerome regard as denoting not the small portions of land in the sea that are surrounded by water, but lands which are encompassed and enclosed Mesopotamia. But there is no reason why it should not be taken here in its usual signification, as denoting the islands of the sea. They would serve well to be used in connection with mountains and hills in setting forth the vast power of God.

As a very little thing - (כדק keddaq). The word דק daq means theft which is beaten small, or fine; and then fine dust, chaff, or any light thing which the wind easily sweeps away.


 
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