Isaiah 46:1-49:26

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Isaiah 46:1-4

We are here told, I. That the false gods will certainly fail their worshippers when they have most need of them, Isa. 46:1, 2. Bel and Nebo were two celebrated idols of Babylon. Some make Bel to be a contraction of Baal; others rather think not, but that it was Belus, one of their first kings, who after his death was deified. As Bel was a deified prince, so (some think) Nebo was a deified prophet, for so Nebo signifies; so that Bel and Nebo were their Jupiter and their Mercury or Apollo.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Isaiah 46:1

Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth ,.... These are names of the idols of Babylon. Bel is by some thought to be the contraction of Baal, the god of the Phoenicians, called by them Beel; so "Beelsamin" F8 Sanchoniatho apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 1. c. 10. p. 34. , in the Phoenician language, is Lord of heaven: but rather this is the Belus of the Babylonians, who was a renowned king of them, and after his death deified; whom Nebuchadnezzar, according to Megasthenes F9 Apud Euseb.... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 46:1

Their carriages were heavy loaden "Their burdens are heavy" - For נשאתיכם nesuotheychem , your burdens, the Septuagint had in their copy נשאתיהם nesuotheyhem , their burdens. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 46:1

Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth . In the later Babylonian period, to which Isaiah's prophetic vision transports him, Bel and Nebo (if we understand by Bel, Bel-Merodach) were decidedly the two principal gods. Of the seven kings of the last dynasty, three had names in which Nebo, and two names in which Bel or Merodach, wad an element. Bel-Merodach and Nebo are the chief gods worshipped by Nebuchadnezzar and Neriglissar. Bel, Nebo, and Merodach are the only three Babylonian gods that receive... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 46:1-2

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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 46:1-4

Men bearing gods, and God bearing his people. The pitiable and even ludicrous insufficiency of idolatry is admirably drawn in this picture. We see the beasts bowed down with the images of the helpless deities of Chaldea In what striking and glowing contrast does the relation of Jehovah to his people appear! From the very infancy of Israel God had borne them in the arms of his faithfulness and power; and his tender kindness in the past would extend to the furthest future. Even to old age he... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 46:1-11

The effect of God's temporal judgments upon nations on the religious history of the world. In the ancient world, where religions had no revealed or historic basis, but had been evolved by degrees from the thought or imagination of each people, the fate of a religion depended greatly upon the course of secular history, and the success or failure that attended upon the arms of the nation professing it. As no people could have a rational, or, consequently, a firm belief in a system based upon... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 46:1-13

The religion of Jehovah contrasted with idolatry. I. THE HUMILIATION OF BEL AND NEBO . These were the tutelar gods of Babylon and its suburb, Borsippa. Merodach, or Marduk ( Jeremiah 50:2 ), is another name of a being closely related to or identical with Bel. The idols of the Chaldeans are given up to the beasts, and the images once carried in solemn procession by the priests and nobles are put upon the backs of beasts of burden. Herodotus and Diodorus tell us of the golden... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Isaiah 46:1

Bel boweth down - Bel or Belus (בל bēl, from בעל be‛ēl, the same as בעל ba‛al was the chief domestic god of the Babylonians, and was worshipped in the celebrated tower of Babylon (compare Jeremiah 50:2; Jeremiah 51:44). It was usual to compound names of the titles of the divinities that were worshipped, and hence, we often meet with this name, as in Bel-shazzar, Bel-teshazzar, Baal-Peor, Baal-zebub, Baal-Gad, Baal-Berith. The Greek and Roman writers compare Bel with Jupiter, and the common... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Isaiah 46:1-2

Isaiah 46:1-2. Bel The chief idol of the Babylonians, called by profane historians Jupiter Belus; boweth down As the Babylonians used to bow down to him to worship him, so now he bows down, and submits himself to the victorious Persians. Nebo stoopeth Another of their famous idols, probably a deified prophet, the word signifying to deliver oracles, or to prophesy. The names of these idols were included in the names of several of their princes, as Bel, in Belshazzar; Nebo, in ... read more

Group of Brands