Isaiah 40:18
New International Version
With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him?

New Living Translation
To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him?

English Standard Version
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?

Berean Standard Bible
To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?

King James Bible
To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

New King James Version
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

New American Standard Bible
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

NASB 1995
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

NASB 1977
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

Legacy Standard Bible
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

Amplified Bible
To whom then will you liken God? Or with what likeness will you compare Him?

Christian Standard Bible
With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Who will you compare God with? What likeness will you compare Him to?

American Standard Version
To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
To whom have you compared God and to what likeness have you likened him?

Brenton Septuagint Translation
To whom have ye compared the Lord? and with what likeness have ye compared him?

Contemporary English Version
Who compares with God? Is anything like him?

Douay-Rheims Bible
To whom then have you likened God? or what image will you make for him?

English Revised Version
To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
To whom, then, can you compare God? To what statue can you compare him?

Good News Translation
To whom can God be compared? How can you describe what he is like?

International Standard Version
"To whom, then, will you compare me, the One who is God? Or to what image will you liken me?

JPS Tanakh 1917
To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?

Literal Standard Version
And to whom do you liken God, | And what likeness do you compare to Him?

Majority Standard Bible
To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?

New American Bible
To whom can you liken God? With what likeness can you confront him?

NET Bible
To whom can you compare God? To what image can you liken him?

New Revised Standard Version
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?

New Heart English Bible
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?

Webster's Bible Translation
To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare to him?

World English Bible
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?

Young's Literal Translation
And unto whom do ye liken God, And what likeness do ye compare to Him?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Here is Your God!
17All the nations are as nothing before Him; He regards them as nothingness and emptiness. 18To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him? 19To an idol that a craftsman casts and a metalworker overlays with gold and fits with silver chains?…

Cross References
Acts 17:29
Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man's skill and imagination.

Exodus 8:10
"Tomorrow," Pharaoh answered. "May it be as you say," Moses replied, "so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.

Exodus 15:11
Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You--majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

Deuteronomy 4:15
So since you saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you out of the fire at Horeb, be careful

1 Samuel 2:2
There is no one holy like the LORD. Indeed, there is no one besides You! And there is no Rock like our God.

Isaiah 40:25
"To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?" asks the Holy One.

Isaiah 46:5
To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal? To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike?


Treasury of Scripture

To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare to him?

Isaiah 40:25
To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

Isaiah 46:5,9
To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? …

Exodus 8:10
And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the LORD our God.

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Compare Comparison Forward Image Liken Opinion
Isaiah 40
1. The promulgation of the Gospel
3. The preaching of John Baptist foretold
9. The preaching of the apostles foretold
12. The prophet, by the omnipotence of God
18. And his incomparableness
26. Comforts the people.














(18) To whom then will ye liken God . . .--The thought of the infinity of God leads, as in St. Paul's reasoning (Acts 17:24-29), to the great primary argument against the folly of idolatry. It is characteristic, partly of the two men individually, partly of the systems under which they lived, that while the tone of Isaiah is sarcastic and declamatory, that of St Paul is pitying, and as with indulgent allowance for the "times of ignorance." We must remember, of course, that the Apostle speaks to those who had known nothing better than the worship of their fathers, the prophet to those who were tempted to fall into the worship of the heathen from a purer faith.

Verse 18. is more the complement of what precedes than the introduction to what follows (comp. ver. 25). If God be all that has been said of him in vers. 12-17, must he not be wholly unique and incomparable? Then, out of this, the thought arises of the strange, the poor, the mean "likenesses" of God, which men have in their folly set up in various times and places. It has been said that Israel in captivity did not need to be warned against idolatry, of the inclination to which the Captivity is supposed at once to have cured them (Urwick, 'Servant of Jehovah,' p. 15). But there is no evidence of this. Rather, considering the few that returned, and the many that remained behind (Joseph., 'Ant Jud.,' 11:1), we may conclude that a large number adopted the customs, religion, and general mode of life of their masters.'

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
To whom
מִ֖י (mî)
Interrogative
Strong's 4310: Who?, whoever, in oblique construction with prefix, suffix

will you liken
תְּדַמְּי֣וּן (tə·ḏam·mə·yūn)
Verb - Piel - Imperfect - second person masculine plural | Paragogic nun
Strong's 1819: To compare, to resemble, liken, consider

God?
אֵ֑ל (’êl)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 410: Strength -- as adjective, mighty, the Almighty

To what
וּמַה־ (ū·mah-)
Conjunctive waw | Interrogative
Strong's 4100: What?, what!, indefinitely what

image
דְּמ֖וּת (də·mūṯ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1823: Resemblance, model, shape, like

will you compare Him?
תַּ֥עַרְכוּ (ta·‘ar·ḵū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - second person masculine plural
Strong's 6186: To set in a, row, arrange, put in order


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OT Prophets: Isaiah 40:18 To whom then will you liken God? (Isa Isi Is)
Isaiah 40:17
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