Yesaya 14:13

14:13 You said to yourself, ¹ 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ² 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ³ 

Yesaya 40:12

The Lord is Incomparable

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 

[14:13]  ¹ tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ² sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ³ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.

[40:12]  ⁴ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has מי ים (“waters of the sea”), a reading followed by NAB.

[40:12]  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).

[40:12]  ⁶ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[40:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “or weighed by a third part [of a measure].”

[40:12]  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.