Isaiah 40:22 (DBY)

Passage

[It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a gauze curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;

Nearby Context

Isaiah 40:20 He that is impoverished, so that he hath no offering, chooseth a tree that doth not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilled workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.

Isaiah 40:21 Do ye not know? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood the foundation of the earth?

Isaiah 40:22 [It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a gauze curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;

Isaiah 40:23 that bringeth the princes to nothing, that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Isaiah 40:24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely hath their stock taken root in the earth, but he also bloweth upon them and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "sitteth", "upon", "circle", "earth", "inhabitants", "thereof", "grasshoppers", and "stretcheth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "sitteth" and "upon", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 21's "Do ye not know Have ye not..." into verse 23's "that bringeth the princes to nothing that...", so "sitteth" and "upon" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "sitteth" and "upon" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.