Isaiah 46

46:1 BEL boweth down, Nebo stoopath; their idols are upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: the things that ye carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. 3 Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which have been borne by me from the belly, which have been carried from the womb: and even to old age I am he, and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; yea, I will carry, and will deliver. To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like? Such as lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, they hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god; they fall down, yea, they worship. 7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. 8 Remember this, and shew yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. 9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me; declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country; yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it. Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. 47:1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones, and grind meal: remove thy veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will accept no man. Our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called The lady of kingdoms. I was wroth with my people, I profaned mine inheritance, and gave them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end thereof. 8 Now therefore hear this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and there is none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children; but these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: in their full measure shall they come upon thee, despite of the multitude of thy sorceries, and the great abundance of thine enchantments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness; thou hast said, None seeth me; thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee: and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and there is none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know the dawning thereof: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou knowest not. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. 13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before. Thus shall the things be unto thee wherein thou hast laboured: they that have trafficked with thee from thy youth shall wander every one to his quarter; there shall be none to save thee.

Chap. 46. The transition is easy and natural, from the deliverance of Israel by Cyrus, and the richer blessings to follow in the days of the promised Messiah, to the downfall of Babylon and its idols. The prophecy then continues with a vivid picture of the images of the gods of Babylon, turned into packages on the backs of weary beasts, instead of being carried aloft in stately procession, and unable to free themselves or their owners from the power of the conquerors. Birks.

The case so often put already in these later prophecies, Jehovah versus idols, becomes in this chapter specific—God versus the idols of Babylon. The great city is seen in prophetic vision, conquered; the vanquished people pack their helpless images upon their beasts of burden to bear them away; the heavy-laden animals stagger and sink under their load, and the god himself is powerless to help. But Jehovah, instead of being borne, Himself bears His people; and shall He be compared to a graven or a molten god? Once more the Lord appeals to His past achievements and to the mission of Cyrus, so signally fulfilling the Divine counsels, and closes with exhorting the ungodly to hear, renewing His promise of salvation near to come for His people. H. C.

In confirmation of the general threats and promises with which chap. 45 is wound up, the prophet now exhibits the particular case of the Babylonian idols as a single instance chosen from the whole range of past and future history. They are described as fallen and gone into captivity, wholly unable to protect their worshippers or save themselves (verses 1, 2). With these he then contrasts Jehovah’s constant care of Israel in time past and in time to come (verses 3, 4). The contrast is carried out by another description of the origin and impotence of idols (verses 5-7), and another assertion of Jehovah’s sole divinity, as proved by His knowledge and control of the future, and by the raising up of Cyrus in particular (verses 8-11). This brings him back to the same solemn warning of approaching judgments, and the same alternative of life or death, with which the foregoing chapter closes (verses 12, 13). A.

1. Bel and Nebo were the chief gods of Babylon, named here to represent the whole set. Etymologically, the word Bel comes from Baal, and Nebo from a word which means a prophet or interpreter. H. C.—The dignity of these two imaginary deities among the Babylonians may be learned from the extent to which these names enter into the composition of the names of men, both in sacred and profane history. Such are Belshazzar, Belteshazzar, Belesys, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, Nabopolassar, Nabonned, etc. A.

2. In the ruin of the empire these idol gods bow down, like those wounded or decrepit with age. Their images, once raised aloft for worship, are placed on beasts of burden and carried away in disgrace. The gods stoop, like the beasts that pant under their idols; and “their souls,” the divinities themselves, are gone into captivity. Birks.

The language of the prophet is necessarily figurative, and when he declares that Bel and Nebo had gone into captivity, nothing more is meant than that the people whose gods they were and whom they represented had passed under the yoke of a foreign conqueror. And yet the prophet’s prediction was eventually fulfilled in a very literal way. The empire of Cyrus was broken up after the death of Cambyses, and had to be reconquered by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, the real founder of the Persian empire. Darius was a Zoroastrian monotheist as well as a Persian, and under him and his successors polytheism ceased to be the religion of the State. Twice during his reign he had to besiege Babylon. Hardly had he been proclaimed king when it revolted under a certain Nidinta-Bel, who called himself “Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabonidos.” Babylon endured a siege of two years, and was at last captured by Darius only by the help of a stratagem. Six years afterward it again rose in revolt, under an Armenian, who professed, like his predecessor, to be “Nebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabonidos.” Once more, however, it was besieged and taken, and this time the pretender was put to death by impalement. His predecessor, Nidinta-Bel, seems to have been slain while the Persian troops were forcing their way into the captured city. After the second capture of Babylon Darius pulled down its walls; and his son Xerxes completed the work of destruction by destroying the great temple of Bel, and carrying away the golden image of the god. Sayce.

3,4. In beautiful contrast the Lord calls the attention of His people to His own relations to them; not borne by them on their weary beasts who sink under their load, but Himself bearing them on His bosom as the mother bears her babe, and this not merely during helpless infancy, but onward even to old age; and finally at the end of their life-journey delivering them safely into their everlasting rest. Verily such a God meets the heart-felt wants of frail mortals! H. C.

The two ideas of creating and carrying are thrown together, and in such a way as to show that they are related; that in the fact of God the Creator lies enfolded the fact of God the Redeemer. “I have made, and I will bear.” Redemption, in one sense, grows out of creation. Because God made man in His own image, He is bent on restoring him to that image. Because God made us God loves us, educates us, bears with us, carries on the race on the line of His infinite patience, ministers to us with help and sympathy, is burdened with our perverseness and blindness, yea, comes down in person into the sphere of our humanity and takes its awful load of sin and sorrow and pain and death upon Himself. He is under no obligation imposed by any rightful claim of ours. But He is under an obligation stronger than that—an obligation imposed by the stress of His own infinite love for the children He has created. The stress of obligation does not draw Him from our side, it pushes from Him toward us. It is the mighty outgoing of His own fatherly heart toward that which emanates from Himself and which He yearns to see restored to the image in which He made it. Vincent.

5. Where else can such a God as Jehovah be found! With what else can He be even compared? Would you think to compare Him with idol gods? Pause and look at those powerless things. See how they are made. Trace their history from the very outset of their existence. Take the best specimens, those prepared by the wealthy classes, who have money to lavish and who spare it not.

8. Addressing idolaters, the Lord calls upon them to remember these facts in respect to their idol gods and to show themselves men by using the reason God has given them. H. C. —The word hithshashu, derived from ‘ish, a man, occurs here only. It answers thus to the apostolic charge, “quit you like men” (1 Cor. 16: 13). In one place the reference is to manly understanding, in the other to manly courage. But the two thoughts are very near akin. All superstition and idol worship is mental cowardice, while true faith and right worship are a manly and reasonable thing. Birks.

9, 10. “I am the Mighty and there is no other God, and there is none like Me, declaring from the first the last, and from ancient time the things which are not (yet) done (or made), saying, My counsel shall stand and all My pleasure I will do.” He calls upon them to consider the proofs of His exclusive deity, afforded not only by the nullity of all conflicting claims, but by the fact of His infallible foreknowledge, as attested by the actual prediction of events long before their occurrence. Declaring the last from the first, or the end from the beginning, means declaring the whole series of events included between these extremes. A.

10. “He knows the end from the beginning.” In that Eternal Mind lies ever undivided the total idea, the total movement, the total time of the immeasurable universe; “all things stand forever according to His unchanging ordinance;” “He maketh peace in His high places,” and yet He hears continually the prayers of His elect. “He putteth their tears in His bottle,” “He numbereth the hairs of their heads.” Both views belong to the greatness as well as the harmony of the Divine character—great in its condescending depths, as in its ineffable height. God sees all things in their causes, He sees also all things in their effects and as effects, even as they are seen and known by us: He sees them in the infinite, total idea, He sees them also as parts, and in their ever-varied, ever-varying relations; He sees them as ever present, He sees them in their flowing successions; He sees them in their timeless being, before all worlds. He sees them as they are carried out. T. Lewis.

Faith and hope, which are prophetic powers in a servant of God, argue from His character and His promises the certainty, the stability of His system. Hence, the visions of faith are sometimes rapturous. But how much more glorious will be the aspect of the system to those who shall be initiated in a future life, into the wondrous counsels of God; who shall see beginning, middle and end; the interruptions, the oppositions, the steps forward, the victory, the closing triumph? God will not seem slow or slack then, but majestic, almighty, all-wise, one and the same through the whole drama. The world will appear to be one, more than now, and the race one, and the counsels of God one from their germ to their perfect fulfilment. Then the perverted will of man, the schemes of imperial power, the theories sanctifying injustice, the great systems of oppression, will seem to have been used by God to spread His glory. As then the enlightened eye shall look back on obstacles, which, at their time, seemed insurmountable, but have now faded away in the distance—on the wrath of man opposing God or defying Him, on revolutions in opinion and in society, they will seem like the storm of yesterday, which has left no trace on the sky, while the steady laws of God run their constant race. “God has triumphed, He has triumphed,” they will then say. Woolsey.