Bible Strands
Isaiah 40:18
To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks through the prophet to the exiles in Babylon, immediately after declaring the nations' worthlessness (v. 17) and immediately before naming the idol as the only candidate for comparison (v. 19).
The words — תְּדַמֶּיּוּ (te.da.me.Yu/n, H1819, "will you liken") and דְּמוּת (de.Mut, H1823, "likeness") share the root d-m-h, "to be like," pairing the verb and its noun to make the act of comparison itself the object of the question.
The thread — The same rhetorical structure recurs in Isaiah 46:5 ("To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal?") and Isaiah 40:25 ("To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?"), and finds its positive counterpart in 1 Samuel 2:2 ("There is no one holy like the LORD").
Why it lands — The verse does not describe God; it interrogates the reader's own mental image and implies that whatever picture they hold is already a failure.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
Cross-references
- Isaiah 46:5 To whom will you liken Me or count Me equal? To whom will you compare Me, that we should be alike?
- 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.
- Exodus 15:11 Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?
- 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.
- Psalms 89:6 For who in the skies can compare with the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD?
- Jeremiah 10:6 There is none like You, O LORD. You are great, and Your name is mighty in power.
- 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.
- Job 40:9 Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?
- Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?