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 ▾

Isaiah 512 verses
- Isaiah 51:5My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
- Isaiah 51:7Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
- Read Isaiah 51 →
Psalms 712 verses
- Psalms 71:6By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
- Psalms 71:18Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
- Read Psalms 71 →
Isaiah 402 verses
- Isaiah 40:18To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
- Isaiah 40:25To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
- Read Isaiah 40 →
Isaiah 452 verses
- Isaiah 45:20Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
- Isaiah 45:21Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
- Read Isaiah 45 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Jeremiah 511 verse
- Jeremiah 51:44And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
- Read Jeremiah 51 →
Isaiah 211 verse
- Isaiah 21:9And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
- Read Isaiah 21 →
Jeremiah 501 verse
- Jeremiah 50:2Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
- Read Jeremiah 50 →
Jeremiah 481 verse
- Jeremiah 48:7For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.
- Read Jeremiah 48 →

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