Bel bows and Nebo stoops: Babylon's gods are loaded as burdens onto weary beasts and carried into captivity, unable to deliver even themselves. Against this image Jehovah sets the reverse: he has carried the house of Jacob from birth and will carry Israel to old age and gray hairs: "I have made, and I will bear." The idol-manufacture scene repeats in miniature: gold lavished from the bag, silver weighed, a goldsmith hired, the finished god borne on shoulders and set in its place, where it cannot move or answer. Jehovah's counter-claim is predictive sovereignty: "declaring the end from the beginning," his counsel standing, summoning a "ravenous bird from the east," the man of his counsel from a far country. The chapter closes with righteousness brought near and salvation placed in Zion for Israel.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview

A. 1–7 Bel Bows Down: Gods Carried, or a God Who Carries
B. 8–13 Declaring the End from the Beginning

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Psalms 712 verses
- Psalms 71:6I have leaned on You since birth; You pulled me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always for You.
- Psalms 71:18Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.
- Read Psalms 71 →
Isaiah 402 verses
- Isaiah 40:18To whom will you liken God? To what image will you compare Him?
- Isaiah 40:25“To whom will you liken Me, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One.
- Read Isaiah 40 →
Isaiah 452 verses
- Isaiah 45:20Come, gather together, and draw near, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry idols of wood and pray to a god that cannot save.
- Isaiah 45:21Speak up and present your case—yes, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none but Me.
- Read Isaiah 45 →
Isaiah 211 verse
- Isaiah 21:9Look, here come the riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one answered, saying: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon! All the images of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”
- Read Isaiah 21 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Jeremiah 511 verse
- Jeremiah 51:44I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.
- Read Jeremiah 51 →
Jeremiah 501 verse
- Jeremiah 50:2“Announce and declare to the nations; lift up a banner and proclaim it; hold nothing back when you say, ‘Babylon is captured; Bel is put to shame; Marduk is shattered, her images are disgraced, her idols are broken in pieces.’
- Read Jeremiah 50 →
Jeremiah 481 verse
- Jeremiah 48:7Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.
- Read Jeremiah 48 →
Judges 181 verse
- Judges 18:17And the five men who had gone to spy out the land went inside and took the graven image, the ephod, the household idols, and the molten idol, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred armed men.
- Read Judges 18 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.