Charles Spurgeon Commentary Isaiah 40:15

"Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." — Isaiah 40:15 (ASV)

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket,

All the nations–Jews and Gentiles, the vast multitudes of China, and India, and all other nations,–all these are but as a drop of a bucket–the one drop that trembles on the bucket's brim when all the rest of the water is gone.

And are counted as the small dust of the balance:

That little imperceptible dust that does not turn the scale of an ordinary balance, and for which you would need the most sensitive scales in order to discover its presence. That is all that the whole of the nations of the earth are in comparison with God; yet, sometimes, we fancy that one man is so great that all must give way to him.

Whereas, if we trust in God, and think as God thinks, a whole nation will be to us as a drop of a bucket, or as the unseen dust of the balance. Dr. Watts aptly sang:–

"Great God! how infinite you are
What worthless worms we are!
Let the whole race of creatures bow,
And pay their praise to you.
Your throne eternal ages stood,
Before seas or stars were made;
You are the ever-living God,
Were all the nations dead."

And are counted as the small dust of the balance:

Remember that this is said of "the nations." China, India, Europe, Africa, with all their teeming multitudes, are only like the small dust of the balance that is blown away by the slightest puff of wind.

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket,

Not a bucketful, but just a drop that remains in the bucket after you thought it had been completely emptied.