King James Bible: Idioms-2 (A Drop in the Bucket)

"A Drop in the Bucket" is another common idiom from the King James Bible.

Isaiah 40:15

"Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing."

A drop of dew on the tip of a leaf (highly magnified). Source: 'Dangled' (CC, ecstaticist's photostream, Flickr)

bucket (CC, DWStucke, Flickr)

Taken literally, the words mean "compared to an entire bucket of water, a small drop of water is insignificant." This idiom is often refers to a small (and therefore inadequate) response to a big need, as in this newspaper headline about a doctor who is suing a public hospital in the US:

 $65,000 likely a drop in the bucket of what county will pay ex-UMC doctor

= Compared to the millions of dollars that the county will eventually pay the doctor, $65,000 seems like a very small amount