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The Fall of Babylon's Idols
v. 1. Bel, the highest deity of Babylon, boweth down, is fallen, Nebo, another Babylonian idol, the tutelary deity of the reigning house of Chaldea, stoopeth, collapsing, or falling prostrate, namely, in the plundering of the city; their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle, when the beasts of burden dragged them away as a part of the conqueror's booty. Your carriages were heavy loaden, they are a burden to the weary beast, that is, the statues of their idols, otherwise carried about by the priests in solemn procession, were seen by the prophet as loaded upon pack-animals, which dragged along, weary with the heavy load.
v. 2. They, the idols, stoop, they bow down together, they are entirely collapsed; they could not deliver the burden, they were unable to save the burden of their own statues, they could not bring them to a place of safety, but themselves are gone into captivity, the very gods of the Babylonians captured and led away into exile, a sarcastic thrust at their helplessness. This introduction prepares the way for a sharp reproof of Israel for its idolatrous leanings.
v. 3. Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel, all those whom the Lord has chosen to be his own peculiar people, which are borne by Me from the belly, which are carried from the womb, sustained and protected by the loving-kindness of the Lord since the time when lie chose them as His people;
v. 4. and even to your old age I am He, the same faithful, dependable God; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you, to the most advanced age of their history, to the very end of their national existence. I have made, and I will bear, the fact of his having sustained them in the past being their guarantee for the future; even I will carry and will deliver you, this deliverance being the surest proof of his divinity.
v. 5. To whom will ye liken Me, and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be like? Cf. Isa_40:18-25. The heaping of expressions again stresses the uniqueness of the true God, the fact that He alone merits the designation of God. How is it possible for Israel even to think of placing the true God on a level with the heathen idols after the manifestations of His power and mercy which they have witnessed? To make this thought stand out still more clearly, the vanity of the idolaters is once more described.
v. 6. They lavish gold out of the bag, paying it out in large quantities, or producing it in heaps as material for the craftsman, and weigh silver in the balance, cheerfully opening their treasures, and hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it, the precious metal which is delivered to him, a god; they fall down, in foolish adoration of the idol, yea, they worship.
v. 7. They bear him, lifting their idol up from the place where he was cast, upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, on the pedestal, in the niche intended for him, and he standeth, a dead thing unable to move; from his place shall he not remove; yea, one shall cry unto him, trusting to obtain help from the idol, yet can be not answer nor save him, the worshiper who places his confidence in him, out of his trouble. Thus the helplessness, nothingness, of the idols is once more set before the people.