Biblion Bible Commentary
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Carried From the Womb to Gray Hairs
Isaiah 46:1-13
1 Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary. · WEB
Two gods are loaded onto donkeys and evacuated, and the contrast is a God who does the carrying.
Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary Isaiah 46:1.
The two chief gods of Babylon, named, and the scene is an evacuation. When a city fell its images were carried out on carts — and the verbs used of them, bowing and stooping, are the verbs of worship. The gods are doing the bowing.
They stoop and they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity Isaiah 46:2.
They could not save the load, and the load was themselves. Gods taken prisoner.
Listen to me, house of Jacob... that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb Isaiah 46:3.
The contrast is announced by repeating the verb. Babylon carries its gods; this God carries his people, and has done since before they could walk.
Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver Isaiah 46:4.
Four verbs in the last clause and the promise runs the whole length of a life. The point at which a person becomes a burden to everyone else is named specifically, and it is the point at which the carrying is guaranteed.
They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship. They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place Isaiah 46:6–7.
The satire of chapter forty-four, compressed. The worshipers carry the god to its spot and it stays where it is put — and one may cry to it, yet it can not answer.
Remember this, and show yourselves men Isaiah 46:8.
I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done. I say: My counsel will stand, and I will do all that I please Isaiah 46:10.
The verse the book's entire case rests on, and the verse that its unity question turns on. Announcing the end from the beginning is the claim; Cyrus is the demonstration.
I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have planned. I will also do it Isaiah 46:11.
Four short clauses in two pairs, and each pair is a word matched to an act.
I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait Isaiah 46:13.
settled What this mark means