Isaiah 40:15 (WEB)
Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
Fathers and councils · 18
Gregory of Nyssa
“…in Whom are all things, Who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and hath meted out heaven with the span, Who measureth the water in the hollow of his hand, Who holdeth in His hand all things that are, Who dwelleth on high and looketh upon the things that are lowly, or rather did look upon them to make all the…” — editor's note: Cf. Isa. xl. 12–22.
Read the whole comment“If “all the nations are as a drop of a bucket,” as Isaiah says, if all living humanity were to send up one united note of praise in harmony together, what addition will this gift of a mere drop be to that which is glorious essentially?” — editor's note: Is. xl. 15. But Mai’s text has σταθμὸς, not σταγὼν (LXX.).
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Irenaeus of Lyons
“…mice concealed in the depths of ignorance, the word justly reckons “as waste water from a sink, and as the turning-weight of a balance—in fact, as nothing;” so far useful and serviceable to the just, as stubble conduces towards the growth of the wheat, and its straw, by means of combustion, serves for working gold.” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
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Tertullian
“…prevent Israel from priding himself on the notion that “the Gentiles are accounted as a little drop of a bucket,” or else as “dust out of a threshing-floor:” although we have God Himself as an adequate engager and faithful promiser, in that He promised to Abraham that “in his seed should be blest all nations of the…” — editor's note: See Isa. xl. 15: “dust of the balance,” Eng. Ver.; ῥοπὴ ζυγοῦ LXX. For the expression “dust out of a threshing-floor,” however, see Ps. i. 4, Dan. ii. 35.
Read the whole comment“Seize the opportunity of unexpected felicity: that you, who sometime were in God’s sight nothing but “a drop of a bucket,” and “dust of the threshing-floor,” and “a potter’s vessel,” may thenceforward become that “tree which is sown beside the waters, is perennial in leaves, bears…” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
Read the whole comment“But when the same prophet represents to us even nations sometimes estimated as “the small dust of the balance,” and as “less than nothing, and vanity,” and sometimes as about to hope and “trust in the name” and arm of the Lord, are we at all misled respecting the Gentile nations by the diversity of statement?” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
Read the whole comment“For, say they, even the Demiurge himself did not uniformly approve of the men of our world, whom he counted as a drop of a bucket, and the dust of the threshing-floor, and spittle and locusts, and put on a level even with brute beasts.” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
Read the whole comment“Therefore He reckoned them “as the drop of a bucket,” while “Sion He left as a look-out in a vineyard.”” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15. [Compare Is. lxiii. 3. Sept.]
Read the whole comment“The Gentiles, on the contrary, had never been in covenant with God; they were only as “a drop from a bucket,” and “as dust from the threshing floor,” and were ever outside the door.” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
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Justin Martyr
“But Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts sufficient for a burnt-offering; and all the nations are considered nothing, and for nothing.’ ”” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 1–17.
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Ambrose of Milan
“Who was His helper, when He made the heavens,—Who, when He laid the foundations of the world?” — editor's note: Job xxxviii. 4–6; Isa. xl. 12–17.
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John Chrysostom
“…wheat, though temptation be brought on thee, thou wilt suffer nothing dreadful; nay, for in the threshing floor, the wheels of the car, that are like saws,do not cut in pieces the wheat; but if thou fall away into the weakness of chaff, thou wilt both here suffer incurable ills, being smitten of all men, and there…” — editor's note: πριστηροειδ, see Is. xl. 15.
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Jerome
“The Jewish people perished in their pride, for while they claimed the chief seats and salutations in the market place, they were superseded by the Gentiles, who had before been counted as “a drop of a bucket.”” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
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Aphrahat
“For destruction and the sword are they esteemed by Him.” — editor's note: Is. xl. 15, 17.
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Hippolytus of Rome
“That Man, however, he says, is of no reputation in the world, but of illustrious fame in heaven, being betrayed by those who are ignorant (of his perfections) to those who know him not, being accounted as a drop from a cask.” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
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Clement of Alexandria
“It is in reference to the unbelieving that it is said, “that they are reckoned as the chaff which the wind drives from the face of the earth, and the drop which falls from a vessel.”” — editor's note: Ps. i. 4: Isa. xl. 15.
Read the whole comment“But those who would not abide by those heavenly bodies assigned to them, but fell away from them to stocks and stones, “were counted,” it is said, “as chaff-dust and as a drop from a jar,” beyond salvation, cast away from the body.” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
Read the whole comment““but as chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the earth,” and as a drop from a vessel.”” — editor's note: Isa. xl. 15.
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Cross-references · 28
Cited together in On Repentance Chapter 4.
Cited together in On Repentance Chapter 4.
Cited together in On Repentance Chapter 4.
Cited together in The Prescription Against Heretics Chapter 7.
Cited together in Scorpiace Chapter 10.
Cited together in On the Resurrection of the Flesh Chapter 59.
Cited together in The Prescription Against Heretics Chapter 7.
Cited together in Scorpiace Chapter 10.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in Against Heresies V.29.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in The Prescription Against Heretics Chapter 7.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in On Repentance Chapter 4.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in On the Resurrection of the Flesh Chapter 59.
Cited together in On the Resurrection of the Flesh Chapter 59.
Cited together in On Repentance Chapter 4.
Cited together in Letters Letter 12.
Cited together in On Repentance Chapter 4.
Cited together in The Stromata, or Miscellanies VII.18.
Cited together in On Repentance Chapter 4.