Isaiah 46:3 - Exposition

All the remnant of the house of Israel . The address is not to those who had remained faithful of the ten tribes (as Delitzsch supposes), but to the captives of Babylon, designated in these later chapters indifferently as "Jacob" or "Israel" ( Isaiah 40:27 ; Isaiah 41:8 , Isaiah 41:14 ; Isaiah 42:24 ; Isaiah 43:1 , Isaiah 43:28 ; Isaiah 44:1 , Isaiah 44:21 , Isaiah 44:23 ; Isaiah 45:4 , etc.), never as "Judah," and constantly mentioned as a "remnant"—all that was left of the oppressed and down-trodden nation (see Isaiah 1:9 ; Isaiah 10:20-22 ; Isaiah 11:16 . etc.). Borne by me. Carried in the everlasting arms, as a child in the arms of its nurse or mother (comp. Isaiah 63:9 ). From the belly … from the womb . From the very beginning of the national existence.