Isaiah 46:2

They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. THEY COULD NOT DELIVER - from the enemies' hands. BURDEN - their images laid on the beasts (). The gods who were supposed to dwell in the images, were not able to deliver them from the Persian spoilers. BUT THEMSELVES ARE GONE INTO CAPTIVITY - the gods, here also distinguished from their images....

2._They could not withdraw themselves from the burden. _He ridicules the vanity of such gods as these, which have neither strength nor motion, and cannot defend or support themselves, and, in a word, who need the aid of beasts of burden to carry them. There is, therefore, an implied contrast between idols and the true God, who has no need of anything whatever. I interpret these words as applied to beasts, but the Prophet heightens the disgrace by saying that they were a heavy burden to the beasts themselves which would willingly have cast them off, and consequently that the false gods, besides being of no use to their worshippers, also wearied out the beasts. _And their soul hath gone into captivity. _This is a Hebrew mode of expression, by which he ridicules those gods which have neither “soul” nor understanding. He speaks ironically, therefore, against useless and dumb idols, when he s...

1-4 The heathen insulted the Jews, as if their idols Bel and Nebo were too hard for Jehovah. But their worshippers cannot help them; both the idols and the idolaters are gone into captivity. Let not God's people be afraid of either. Those things from which ungodly men expect safety and happiness, will be found unable to save them from death and hell. The true God will never fail his worshippers. The history of the life of every believer is a kind of abstract of the history of Israel. Our spiritual life is upheld by his grace, as constantly as our natural life by his providence. And God will never leave them. The Author will be the Finisher of their well-being, when, by decays, they need help as much as in infancy. This promise to Israel, enfeebled and grown old as a nation, is applicable to every aged follower of Christ. When compassed about with infirmities, and perhaps those around be...

Verse Isaiah 46:2. _THEY COULD NOT DELIVER THE BURDEN_ - "They could not deliver their own charge"] That is, their worshippers, who ought to have been borne by them. See the two next verses. The _Chaldee_ and _Syriac_ Versions render it in effect to the same purpose, _those_ _that bear them_, meaning their worshippers; but how they can render _massa_ in an active sense, I do not understand. For לא lo, not, ולא velo, and they could not, is the reading of twenty-four of _Kennicott's_, sixteen of _De Rossi's_, and two of my own MSS. The added _vau_ gives more elegance to the passage. _BUT THEMSELVES_ - "Even they themselves"] For ונפשם _venaphsham_, an ancient MS. has כי נפשם _ki naphsham_, with more force....

THEY STOOP - Bel, and Nebo, and all the Babylonian gods (see Isaiah 46:1). THEY COULD NOT DELIVER THE BURDEN - The word ‘burden’ here, probably means the load of metal, wood, and stone, of which the idols were composed. The gods whom the Babylonians worshipped had not even power to protect the images which were made to represent them, and which had now become a heavy burden to the animals and wains which were carrying them away. They could not rescue them from the hands of the conqueror; and how unable were they, therefore, to defend those who put their trust in them. The Vulgate renders this, ‘They could not deliver him that bare them.’ The Septuagint, ‘You are carrying them like a burden bound on the weary, faint, and hungry; who are all without strength, and unable to escape from battle; and as for them, they are carri

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 46:1, ISAIAH 46:2 THE FALL OF THE GODS OF BABYLON. Among the direct consequences of the victories of Cyrus will be the downfall, in a certain sense, of the Babylonian idolatry. The prophet expresses the downfall by material imagery, graphically describing the fate of the idols themselves. But we must regard him as exulting mainly in the thought of the blow that would be dealt to idolatry in general, and to the Babylonian fond of it in particular, by the substitution of the non-idolatrous and almost monotheistic Persians for the polytheistic and grossly idolatrous Babylonians, in the sovereignty of the Asiat

THEY STOOP, THEY BOW TOGETHER,.... Either the beasts under their burdens, or other idols besides those mentioned; or rather the Babylonians themselves, who were obliged to submit to the conquerors: THEY COULD NOT DELIVER THE BURDENS; the idols could not save themselves from being laid as burdens upon the beasts, any more than they could save their worshippers: so the Targum understands this and the preceding clause of them; "they are cut off, and cut to pieces together, they could not deliver those that carried them;'' or else the Babylonians are designed, who could not save their gods from being used in this shameful manner: BUT THEMSELVES ARE GONE INTO CAPTIVITY, or "their souls" m; what were as dear to them as their own souls, their idols; to whom also souls may be ascribed by way of derision, being inanimate as well as irrational; and it is not unusual for idols to be said to be...

CHAPTER 46 1. _Babylon Is to Fall The Babylonian idols carried by the beasts (Isaiah 46:1)_ 2. _How Jehovah carries His people (Isaiah 46:3)_ 3. _The divine reproach (Isaiah 46:5)_ 4. _A ravenous bird (Cyrus) to come from the east (Isaiah 46:8)_ 5. _Salvation in Zion (Isaiah 46:12) _ The opening verses are comforting. The helplessness of the Babylonian idols is described. They have to be carried. They cannot deliver out of captivity, for they themselves have gone in to captivity. But Jehovah carries His people from birth to

THE HELPLESS PLIGHT OF BABYLON'S GODS CONTRASTED WITH THE SAVING MIGHT OF YAHWEH. Isaiah 46:1 f. In vision the prophet sees the images of Babylon's gods (two of the most prominent are named), taken from their proud pedestals and placed upon the victor's beasts. So far from delivering others, or even their own images, Bel and Nabu are carried away captive. The general drift is clear, but details are uncertain owing to corruption of the text. Isaiah 46:1. and upon the cattle: delete as gloss on beasts. THE THINGS THAT YE CARRIED ABOUT: the images carried in festive processions, but perhaps after BEASTS we should read simply, laid as a load upon the weary cattle. ISAIAH 46:3. Yahweh ad

THEY. Aram, and Syriac, with five early printed editions, read "and they". But some codices, with two early printed editions, omit "and". THEMSELVES. their soul. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13....