Isaiah 46:4

And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. (EVEN) TO (YOUR) OLD AGE - as your ... you ... you, are not in the Hebrew, the sentiment is more general than the English version, though of course it includes the Jews from the infancy to the more advanced age of their history (). I AM HE - i:e., the Same (; ; ). I HAVE MADE, AND I WILL BEAR ... CARRY ... DELIVER. Not only do I not need to be borne and carried myself, as the idols ...

4_And even to old age. _Here I explain the copulative ו _(vau) _to mean _therefore; _and the reasoning ought to be carefully observed, for he argues thus, “I have begotten and brought you forth;” and again, “Even when you were little children, I carried you in my arms, and therefore I will be the guardian of your life till the end.” Thus also David reasons, “Thou art he who brought me out of the womb; I trusted in thee while I hung on my mother’s breasts; I was cast upon thee from my birth; thou art my God from my mother’s womb.” (Psalms 22:10.) He therefore promises that he will always be a Father to the Jews; and hence we see that we ought to cherish assured confidence of salvation from the time that the Lord hath once begun it in us, for he wishes to continue his work til

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...

AND EVEN TO YOUR OLD AGE, I AM HE - Or rather, I am the same. I remain, unchangeably, with the same tenderness, the same affection, the same care. In this the care of God for his people surpasses that of the most tender parent, and the most kind nourisher of the young. The care of the parent naturally dies away as the child reaches manhood, and he is usually removed by death before the son or daughter that excited so much solicitude in infancy and childhood, reaches old age. But not so with God. His people are always the objects of his tender solicitude. Age does not make them less dependent, and experience only teaches them more and more their need of his sustaining grace. The argument here is, that he who had watched over the infancy of his people with so much solicitude, would not leave them in the exposures, and infirmities, and trials of the advanced years of their history. The doct...

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

AND EVEN TO YOUR OLD AGE I AM HE,.... The same he ever was, the eternal and unchangeable Jehovah; the same in his love and affections; in his sympathy and care; in his power and protection; in his promises, truth, and faithfulness to his people, in their last days, as at the first moment of their conversion; and therefore they are safe; see Psalms 102:27: AND EVEN TO HOAR HAIRS WILL I CARRY YOU n; which is doing more than the most tender parent does, or can, or need to do! God will not leave his people in the decline of life, when pressing infirmities are upon them, and they stand in as much need as ever of being bore up, supported, and carried: wherefore it follows, I HAVE MADE; these persons, not merely as creatures, but as new creatures; they are formed for myself; they are my sons and daughters, the works of my hands: I have an interest in them,

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

EVEN. yea. Some codices, with three early printed editions, Syriac, and Vulgate, omit "yea"....

DISCOURSE: 945 GOD’S CARE FOR HIS PEOPLE Isaiah 46:3. _Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: and even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, end I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. To whom will you liken me?_ THAT men who know nothing of the One true God should form to themselves idols to represent imaginary gods, is not so much to be wondered at: because every child of man feels himself dependent on some superior Being, though of the nature or character of that being he has no distinct conception. But that persons who have been instructed in the knowledge of Jehovah, and been themselves eye-witnesses of his mighty works, should have any disposition to renounce him, and to place their dependence on idols o