This document provides commentary on Isaiah 46. It discusses the idols Bel and Nebo that were worshipped in Babylon. Bel was the chief god of Babylon and was equated with Jupiter. Nebo was an oracular god equated with Mercury or Hermes. The commentary explains that these idols will be overthrown when Babylon falls to Cyrus and the Persians. The idols will be taken from their temples, broken down, and their pieces loaded onto the backs of beasts of burden to be carried off as plunder by the conquering Persians. This humiliation of the idols that the Babylonians had proudly worshipped serves to prophesy Babylon's coming destruction.

1. ISAIAH 46 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Gods of Babylon
1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
their idols are borne by beasts of burden.[a]
The images that are carried about are burdensome,
a burden for the weary.
1.BARNES, “Bel boweth down - Bel or Belus (‫בל‬ bel, from ‫בעל‬ be
‛el, the same as ‫בעל‬ ba‛al
was the chief domestic god of the Babylonians, and was worshipped in the celebrated tower of
Babylon (compare Jer_50:2; Jer_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 name which they give to this idol is Jupiter Belus
(Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxvii. 10; Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 16; Diod. ii. 8, 9). Herodotus (i. 181-183) says,
that in the center of each division of the city of Babylon (for the Euphrates divided the city into
two parts) there is a circular space surrounded by a wall. In one of these stands the royal palace,
which fills a large and strongly defended space.
The temple of Jupiter Belus, says he, occupies the other, whose huge gates of brass may still
be seen. It is a square building, each side of which is of the length of two furlongs. In the midst, a
tower rises of the solid depth and height of one furlong; on which, resting as a base, seven other
turrets are built in regular succession. The ascent on the outside, winding from the ground, is
continued to the highest tower; and in the middle of the whole structure there is a convenient
resting place. In this temple there is a small chapel, which contains a figure of Jupiter in a sitting
posture, with a large table before him; these, with the base of the table, and the sear of the
throne, are all of the purest gold. There was formerly in this temple a statue of solid gold, twelve
cubits high. This was seized, says Herodotus, by Xerxes, who put the priest to death who
endeavored to prevent its removal.
The upper room of this tower was occupied as an observatory. The idol Baal, or Bel, was
especially the god of the Phenicians, of the Canaanites, of the Chaldeans, of the Moabites, and of
some of the surrounding nations. The most common opinion has been, that the idol was the sun
(see the notes at Isa_17:8-9), and that, under this name, this luminary received divine honors.
But Gesenius supposes that by the name Jupiter Belus was not denoted Jupiter, ‘the father of

2. the gods,’ but the planet Jupiter, Stella Jovis, which was regarded, together with Venus, as the
giver of all good fortune; and which forms with Venus the most fortunate of all constellations
under which sovereigns can be born. The planet Jupiter, therefore, he supposes to have been
worshipped under the name Bel, and the planet Venus under the name of Astarte, or Astareth
(see Gesenius, Commentary zu Isaiah, ii. 333ff, and Robinson’s Calmet, Art. Baal). The phrase
‘boweth down,’ means here, probably, that the idol sunk down, fell, or was removed. It was
unable to defend the city, and was taken captive, and carried away. Jerome renders Confractus
est Bel - ‘Bel is broken.’ The Septuagint, ᅤπεσε Βᆱλ Epese Bel - ‘Bel has fallen.’ Perhaps in the
language there is allusion to the fact that Dagon fell before the ark of God 1Sa_5:2-3, 1Sa_5:7.
The sense is, that even the object of worship - that which was regarded as the most sacred
among the Chaldeans - would be removed.
Nebo stoopeth - This was an idol-god of the Chaldeans. In the astrological mythology of the
Babylonians, according to Gesenius (Commentary zu Isaiah ii. 333ff), this idol was the planet
Mercury. He is regarded as the scribe of the heavens, who records the succession of the celestial
and terrestrial events; and is related to the Egyptian Hermes and Anubis. The extensive worship
of this idol among the Chaldeans and Assyrians is evident from the many compound proper
names occurring in the Scriptures, of which this word forms a part, as Neb-uchadnezzar, Neb-
uzaradan: and also in the classics, as Nab-onad, Nab-onassar. Nebo was, therefore, regarded as
an attendant on Bel, or as his scribe. The exact form of the idol is, however, unknown. The word
‘stoopeth,’ means that it had fallen down, as when one is struck dead he falls suddenly to the
earth; and the language denotes conquest, where even the idols so long worshipped would be
thrown down. The scene is in Babylon, and the image in the mind of the prophet is that of the
city taken, and the idols that were worshipped thrown down by the conqueror, and carried away
in triumph.
Their idols were upon the beasts - That is, they are laid upon the beasts to be borne away
in triumph. It was customary for conquerors to carry away all that was splendid and valuable, to
grace their triumph on their return; and nothing would be a more certain indication of victory,
or a more splendid accompaniment to a triumph, than the gods whom the vanquished nations
had adored. Thus in Jer_48:7, it is said, ‘And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, with his
priests and his princes together’ (compare Jer_44:3, margin.)
Your carriages - That is, they were laden with the idols that were thus borne off in triumph.
They are a burden - They are so numerous; so heavy; and to be borne so far. This is a very
striking and impressive manner of foretelling that the city of Babylon would be destroyed.
Instead of employing the direct language of prophecy, the prophet represents himself as seeing
the heavy laden animals and wagons moving along slowly, pressed down under the weight of the
captured gods to be borne into the distant country of the conqueror. They move forth from
Babylon, and the caravan laden with the idols, the spoils of victory, is seen slowly moving
forward to a distant land.
2. CLARKE, “Their carriages were heavy loaden “Their burdens are heavy” - For
‫נשאתיכם‬ nesuotheychem, your burdens, the Septuagint had in their copy ‫נשאתיהם‬ nesuotheyhem,
their burdens.
3. GILL, “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

3. Beel; so "Beelsamin" (h), 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 (i), calls Belus his progenitor, and by whom
Babylon was walled about. This idol is, no doubt, the same with Jupiter Belus, who had a temple
in Babylon with gates of brass, and which was in being in the times of Herodotus (k), as he
reports. This name is sometimes taken into the names of their kings, as Belshazzar or
Beltesbazaar. Nebo was another of their idols, an oracular one, from whom, by its priests,
prophesies of things future were pretended to be given out; for it may have its name from ‫,נבא‬
"to prophesy", and answers to the Apollo or Mercury of other nations. The Alexandrian copy of
the Septuagint has very wrongly, instead of it, Dagon the god of the Philistines; and so the
Arabic version "Dsagon". This name Nebo was also taken into the names of the kings of Babylon,
as Nabonassar, Nabopalassar, Nebuchadnezzar, and others. As Bel is the same with Belus, so
Nebo is the same with Beltis, the queen Megasthenes or Abydenus speaks of in the same place;
and Bel may design the sun, and Nebo the moon, which may have its name from ‫,נוב‬ "to bud
forth", or "make fruitful", as the moon does; see Deu_33:14. It is said of both these deities, that
they "stooped" or "bowed down"; being taken down from the high places where they were set
upright, and looked grand and majestic, and where they might be seen and worshipped by the
people. Jarchi gives the words another sense, that it represents in a sarcastic way these idols, as
through fear, in a like condition that men are in, in a fit of the colic, who not being able to get to
the solid stool, are obliged to bend their knees, and ease themselves as they can (l). Aben Ezra
seems to refer to the same signification of the word, when he says the sense was well known, but
it was not fit to write it. The prophet goes on in the derision of these idols:
their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle; that is, being taken down, and
broke to pieces for the sake of the silver, and gold, and brass that were about them, or they were
made of, they were put into sacks by the Persians, and laid upon camels, and mules, and horses,
and transported into Media and Persia. Jarchi interprets it, their idols are like to beasts, which
defile themselves with their dung as they do; and so the Targum renders it,
"their images are "in" the likeness of serpents and beasts.''
These were the forms of them:
your carriages were heavy loaden, they are a burden to the weary beast; this seems
to be spoken to the Persians, who loaded their carriages, and their beasts, with this lumber, that
their wagons were ready to break down, and their cattle groaned under the weight of it; a
sarcastic jeer at the idols which were become the plunder and prey of the soldiers. It was usual at
the taking of cities to demolish the idols of them; and this was typical of the demolition of
Heathen idols, and the cessation of Heathen oracles in the Gentile world, through the spread of
the Gospel in it, in the first times of Christianity.
4. HENRY, “We are here told,
I. That the false gods will certainly fail their worshippers when they have most need of them,
Isa_46:1, Isa_46:2. 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. Barnabas and Paul passed at Lystra for Jupiter and Mercury. The names of these idols

4. were taken into the names of their princes, Bel into Belshazzar's, Nebo into Nebuchadnezzar's
and Nebuzaradan's, etc. These gods they had long worshipped, and in their revels praised them
for their successes (as appears, Dan_5:4); and they insulted over Israel as if Bel and Nebo were
too hard for Jehovah and could detain them in captivity in defiance of their God. Now, that this
might be no discouragement to the poor captives, God here tells them what shall become of
these idols, which they threaten them with. When Cyrus takes Babylon, down go the idols. It was
usual then with conquerors to destroy the gods of the places and people they conquered, and to
put the gods of their own nation in the room of them, Isa_37:19. Cyrus will do so; and then Bel
and Nebo, that were set up on high, and looked great, bold, and erect, shall stoop and bow down
at the feet of the soldiers that plunder their temples. And because there is a great deal of gold
and silver upon them, which was intended to adorn them, but serves to expose them, they carry
them away with the rest of the spoil. The carriers' horses, or mules, are laden with them and
their other idols, to be sent among other lumber (for so it seems they accounted them rather
than treasure) into Persia. So far are they from being able to support their worshippers that they
are themselves a heavy load in the wagons, and a burden to the weary beast.
5. JAMISON, “Isa_46:1-13. Babylon’s idols could not save themselves, much less her. but
God can and will save Israel: Cyrus is his instrument.
Bel — the same as the Phoenician Baal, that is, lord, the chief god of Babylon; to it was
dedicated the celebrated tower of Babylon, in the center of one of the two parts into which the
city was divided, the palace being in the center of the other. Identical with the sun, worshipped
on turrets, housetops, and other high places, so as to be nearer the heavenly hosts (Saba)
(Jer_19:13; Jer_32:29; Zep_1:5). Gesenius identifies Bel with the planet Jupiter, which, with the
planet Venus (under the name Astarte or Astaroth), was worshipped in the East as the god of
fortune, the most propitious star to be born under (see on Isa_65:11). According to the
Apocryphal book, Bel and the Dragon, Bel was cast down by Cyrus.
boweth ... stoopeth — falleth prostrate (Isa_10:4; 1Sa_5:3, 1Sa_5:4; Psa_20:8).
Nebo — the planet Mercury or Hermes, in astrology. The scribe of heaven, answering to the
Egyptian Anubis. The extensive worship of it is shown by the many proper names compounded
of it: Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuzar-adan, Nabonassar, etc.
were upon — that is, were a burden (supplied from the following clause) upon. It was
customary to transport the gods of the vanquished to the land of the conquerors, who thought
thereby the more effectually to keep down the subject people (1Sa_5:1, etc.; Jer_48:7; Jer_49:3;
Dan_11:8).
carriages — in the Old English sense of the things carried, the images borne by you: the
lading (Act_21:15), “carriages,” not the vehicles, but the baggage. Or, the images which used to
be carried by you formerly in your solemn processions [Maurer].
were heavy loaden — rather, are put as a load on the beasts of burden [Maurer]. Horsley
translates, “They who should have been your carriers (as Jehovah is to His people, Isa_46:3,
Isa_46:4) are become burdens” (see on Isa_46:4).
6. K&D, “There follows now a trilogy of prophecies referring to Babylon. After the prophet
has shown what Israel has to expect of Cyrus, he turns to what awaits Babylon at the hands of
Cyrus. “Bel sinketh down, Nebo stoopeth; its images come to the beast of burden and draught
cattle: your litters are laden, a burden for the panting. They stopped, sank down all at once,

5. and could not get rid of the burden; and their own self went into captivity.” The reference to
Babylon comes out at once in the names of the gods. Bel was the Jupiter of the Babylonians and,
as Bel-Merodach, the tutelar deity of Babylon; Nebo was Mercury, the tutelar deity of the later
Chaldean royal family, as the many kings' names in which it appears clearly show (e.g.,
Mabonassar, Nabo-polassar, etc.). The pryamidal heap of ruins on the right bank of the
Euphrates, which is now called Birs Nimrud, is the ruin of the temple of Bel, of which Herodotus
gives a description in i. 181-183, and probably also of the tower mentioned in Gen 11, which was
dedicated to Bel, if not to El = Saturn. Herodotus describes two golden statues of Bel which were
found there (cf., Diodorus, ii. 9, 5), but the way in which Nebo was represented is still unknown.
The judgment of Jehovah falls upon these gods through Cyrus. Bel suddenly falls headlong, and
Nebo stoops till he also falls. Their images come to (fall to the lot of) the chayyah, i.e., the camels,
dromedaries, and elephants; and be
hemah, i.e., horses, oxen, and asses. Your ‫ּת‬‫א‬ ֻ‫שׂ‬ְ‫,נ‬ gestamina,
the prophet exclaims to the Babylonians, i.e., the images hitherto carried by you in solemn
procession (Isa_45:20; Amo_5:26; Jer_10:5), are now packed up, a burden for that which is
wearied out, i.e., for cattle that has become weary with carrying them. In Isa_46:1, as the two
participial clauses show, the prophet still takes his stand in the midst of the catastrophe; but in
Isa_46:2 it undoubtedly lies behind him as a completed act. In Isa_46:2 he continues, as in
Isa_46:1, to enter into the delusion of the heathen, and distinguish between the numina and
simulacra. The gods of Babylon have all stooped at once, have sunken down, and have been
unable to save their images which were packed upon the cattle, out of the hands of the
conquerors. In Isa_46:2 he destroys this delusion: they are going into captivity (Hos_10:5;
Jer_48:7; Jer_49:3), even “their ownself” (naphsham), since the self or personality of the
beingless beings consists of nothing more than the wood and metal of which their images are
composed.
7. BI, “Bel and Nebo
Bel and Nebo are the Jupiter and Mercury of the Babylonian pantheon (they are represented by
these planets), and were the supreme deities in Babylon at this time.
Bel (Bilu) is the Babylonian form of the Hebrew Ba’al (= lord), and like that word is a generic
name applicable to any deity. When used as a proper name it usually denotes Merodach
(Marduk), the tutelary divinity of the city of Babylon (Jer_50:2; Jer_51:44); although there was
an older Bel, who is spoken of as his father. The elevation of BelMerodach to the chief place
among the older gods, as recorded in the mythical Chaldean account of the Creation (Tablet 4.1
ff.), is the legendary counterpart of the ascendency acquired by Babylon over the more ancient
cities of the Euphrates valley. Nebo (Nabu) was the son of Merodach; the chief seat of his
worship being Borsippa, in the vicinity of Babylon. His name, which is supposed to be from the
same root as the Hebrew nabi’, “prophet,” seems to mark him out as the “speaker” of the gods
(another point of contact with Mercury, “the chief speaker”— Act_14:12). He was also regarded
as the inventor of writing. The frequency with which the Chaldean kings are named after him
(Nabo-polassar, Nebu-chadnezzar, Nabo-nidus) has been thought to show that he was the
patron deity of the dynasty. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
A contrast—idols and God

6. 1. This is an incident in the fall of Babylon. Cyrus has broken in, and the mighty city lies
open to the Persian army, exasperated by long waiting at her gates. The blood of her nobles
has flowed freely over the marble floors of her palaces; most of her defenders are slain.
Women and children are cowering in the inmost recesses of their homes, or filling the streets
with screams of terror and appeals for help, as they fly from the brutal soldiery. The final
and most sanguinary conflicts have taken place within the precincts of the idol temples; but
all is still now. The priests have fallen around the altars which they served; their blood
mingling with that of their victims, and their splendid vestments are become their winding
sheets. And now, down the marble staircases, trodden in happier days by the feet of myriads
of votaries, 1 o, the soldiers are carrying the helpless idols. The stern monotheism of Persia
would have no pity for the many gods of Babylon; there are no idol-shrines in the land of the
sun-worshippers where they could find a niche: but they are borne away as trophies of the
completeness of the victory. There is Bel, whose name suggested that of the capital itself.
How ignominiously it is handed down from its pedestal! And Nebo follows. The hideous
images, lavishly inset with jewels and richly caparisoned, are borne down the stately steps,
their bearers laughing and jeering as they come. The gods get little respect from their rude
hands, which are only eager to despoil them of a jewel. And now, at the foot of the stairs,
they are loaded up on the backs of elephants, or pitched into the ox-waggons. In more
prosperous days they were carried with excessive pomp through the streets of Babylon,
wherever there was plague or sickness. Then the air had been full of the clang of cymbals and
trumpets, and the streets thronged with worshipping crowds; but all that is altered. “The
things that ye carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they
bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into
captivity” (Isa_46:12, R V). So much for the gods of Babylon being borne off into captivity.
2. Close on this graphic picture of the discomfiture of the gods of Babylon, we are invited to
consider a description of Jehovah, in which the opposite to each of these items stands out in
clear relief. He speaks to the house of Jacob, and to all the remnant of the house of Israel, as
children whom He had borne from the birth, and carried from earliest childhood. Their God
needed not to be borne, He bore; needed no carriage, since His everlasting arms made cradle
and carriage both. Such am He had been, He would be. He would not change. He would
carry them, even to hoar hairs. He had made and He would bear; yea, He would carry and
deliver.
3. This contrast is a perpetual one. Some people carry their religion; other people are carried
by it. Some are burdened by the prescribed creeds, ritual, observances, exactions, to which
they believe themselves to be committed. Others have neither thought nor care for these
things. They have yielded themselves to God, and are persuaded that He will bear them and
carry them, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that they go, until they come to the
place of which God has spoken to them Deu_1:31; Isa_63:9). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Israel’s infancy and maturer life
“From the womb” and “from the lap” point back to the time when the nation whose existence
began with Abraham, marching from Egypt, was born, so to speak, to the light of the world;
from that time it has lain like a willingly assumed burden on Jehovah, who carries it as a nurse
the babe (Num_11:12); as a man his son (Deu_1:31); as an eagle its young (Deu_32:11). The
seneetus and canities in Isa_46:4 are self-evidently the nation’s, but not as if this were at
present in a senile state, but the yet future and latest days of its history. Up to that moment
Jehovah is He, i.e the Absolute One, and always the same (chap. 41:4). As He has done hitherto,
He will act in the future—bearing and saving. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)

7. National life—its stages
The general analogy between the life of individuals and that of nations, is sufficiently obvious,
and is finely expressed by Florus, in his division of the Roman history into the periods of
childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. (J. A. Alexander.)
Idols found wanting, but Jehovah found faithful
The confidence of Babylon is buried among her heaps of rubbish, for her gods have fallen from
their thrones. As for us, our trust is in the living God, who lives to carry His chosen.
I. FALSE CONFIDENCES PASS AWAY.
1. The Lord has made a full end of false gods and their worship. “Bel boweth down,” &c. Not
only concerning Bel and Nebo, but concerning many a set of heathen deities, a note of
exultant derision may be taken up. “The idols He shall utterly abolish.”
2. The like thing has happened unto false systems of teaching. If you are at all readers of the
history of religious thought, you will know that systems of philosophy, and philosophical
religions, have come up, and have been generally accepted as indisputable, and have done
serious injury to true religion for a time; and yet they have vanished like the mirage of the
desert.
3. It will be just the same with us if we trust in false confidences of any sort; such, for
instance, as our experiences, or attainments, or services, or orthodox belief.
II. OUR GOD ABIDES ALWAYS THE SAME. “Even to your old age I am He.” He is always the
same in Himself, and always the same to His people.
1. We rightly expect trials between here and heaven; and the ordinary wear and tear of life,
even if life should not be clouded by an extreme trial, will gradually wear us out. What saith
our God concerning the days of decline and decay? He says to us, “I am He.” He will not
grow weak. His eye will not be dim. His ear will not be heavy.
2. If life should flow never so smoothly, yet there are the rapids of old age, and the broken
waters of infirmity, and the cataract of disease—and these we are apt to dread; but why? Is it
not sure that the Lord changes not?
3. In the course of years, not only do we change, but our circumstances change. If you are
where you ought to be, your confidence is in God now, and you will have the same God then,
and He will still be your guardian and provider. His bank will not break, nor His treasury
fail.
4. “Ah!” say you, “but what I most mourn is the death of friends.” Yes; that calamity is a
daily sorrow to men who are getting into years. But the Lord says, “I am He,” as much as to
say, “I am left to you, and will not fail you.”
5. Some trouble themselves more than there is need concerning prophetic crises which are
threatened. We know so little of the future that to worry about it will be the height of
unwisdom. The Lord took care of the world before we were here to help Him, and He will do
it just as well when we are gone. We can leave politics, religion, trade, morals, and
everything else with Him. What we have to do is to obey Him, and trust Him, and rejoice in
Him.

8. 6. “Still,” says one, “there are such evil tokens in the Church itself as must cause serious
apprehension to godly men.” But never despair of the Church of God, for of her it is true,
“Even to hoar hairs will I carry you; to your old age I am He.” The Head of the Church never
alters. His choice of His Church is not reversed. His purpose for His Church is not shaken.
We shall see better days and brighter times yet, if we have but faith in God and importunity
in prayer.
III. WHILE FALSE CONFIDENCES PASS AWAY, GOD WILL FOR EVER BE THE SAME. His
former mercies guarantee to us future mercies.
1. He says, “I have made.” It is well to remember the mercy of God to us in our formation,
and in the first days of our birth and infancy. But God made us in another sense. He new-
made us.
2. Then He also tells us that He has carried us; and if we have been carried by Him, He will
carry us the rest of the way. What a great care has our gracious God, since none of His
children can run alone without His power, His love, His grace!
3. Practically, God’s mercies through life are always the same. Notice two things which are
always here—the same God and the same mercy. There is nobody else here but the Lord
alone with His people. You and your God; and you are nobody but a poor thing that has to be
carried. God’s great “I,” and that alone, fills up the whole space. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
8. PULPIT, “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 almost
monotheistic Persians for the polytheistic and grossly idolatrous Babylonians, in the sovereignty of the
Asiatic world. The Babylonian religion no doubt maintained itself at Babylon until and beyond the time of
Alexander; but it had lost all its prestige. From the state religion of the chief empire of Western Asia, it had
sunk to the position of a provincial cult.
Isa_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 acknowledgment from Cyrus in the so-called 'Cyrus Cylinder.' Bel is, in the Babylonian, "Bil," or
"Belu," and means simply "lord." There was an ancient god of the name, one of the First Triad (Anu, Bel,
and Hen or Hod), who came by degrees to be identified with Merodach, the tutelary deity of Babylon. Bel-
Merodach was the Βῆλος (Belus) of the Greeks and Romans, who was worshipped in the great temple of
Babylon, now represented by the ruin called "Babil."His name forms an element in those of Bel-lush, Bel-
kudur-azur, Bel-ipni. Bel-zakir-isknn, and Belshazzar, all of them kings or viceroys of either Babylonia or
Assyria. Nebu was the Babylonian god of learning, and has therefore been compared to Mercury. He was
the special deity of Borsippa. The name is thought to be etymologically connected with the Hebrew nabi,
prophet. The "bowing" and "stooping" of Bel and Nebo has primary reference to the overthrow of their
images by the conqueror; but includes also the idea of the fall of the gods themselves in the opinions of
men. Their idols were upon the beasts. The Chaldean images generally—not only those of Bel-
Merodach and Nebo, but also of Ann, and Hen, and Beltis, and Ishtar, and Nergal, and Sin, and Shamas,
and Gula, and others—would be torn from their shrines, and placed upon the backs of beasts of burden,
to be carried off by the conquerors. No doubt this was the case with a large number of the images, which

9. were among the most precious of the spoils seized by the soldiers. But it appears that numerous
exceptions were made. Neither Cyrus nor Cambyses touched the famous golden image of Bel-Merodach
at Babylon, which was first carried off from the great temple by Xerxes (Herod; 1.183). Cyrus, moreover,
restored various idols, which Nabonidus had taken to Babylon from provincial towns, to the temples to
which they of right belonged. But though their fate was in tiffs way often delayed, ultimately it is probable
every valuable idol was carried off and committed to the melting-pot. Your carriages were heavy
loaden; rather, the things that ye carried (in procession) are now borne along heavily. The allusion is to
the contrast between the light-hearted carrying of the images on festal occasions by their votaries
(Isa_45:20), and their slow transport to foreign lands on the backs of wearied beasts.
9. MEYER, “GOD’S SALVATION SHALL NOT TARRY
Isa_46:1-13
Here is a startling contrast! Babylon is broken up. An invading army of stern monotheists have
slain the idolatrous priests at their altars and are engaged in carrying out the idols for the
bonfire. And as the Jewish remnant is witnessing the extraordinary spectacle, they are reminded
that their God does not require to be borne. Nay, on the contrary He has borne His people from
the earliest days and will continue to bear them till the heavens have passed away.
The contrast is a perpetual one. Some people carry their religion; others are carried by it. Some
are burdened by minute prescriptions and an external ritual; others yield themselves to God, to
be borne by Him in old age as they were in the helplessness of childhood. They are persuaded
that He will bear them “as a man doth bear His son,” in all the way that they go, until they come
to the prepared place. See Deu_1:31; Isa_63:9. God immediately responds to a trust like that,
and His salvation does not tarry.
9. CALVIN, “1.Bel hath bowed down. Isaiah continues the same subject; for we need not trouble
ourselves about the division of chapters, which have not always been accurately divided; but we ought to
examine the statements themselves, which agree with each other in the manner which I have pointed out.
Yet if any prefer to view this as the commencement of a new discourse, because immediately afterwards
he prophesies concerning the destruction of Babylon, I shall not greatly quarrel with him.
Nebo is cast down. “” and “” were idols which were worshipped by the Babylonians, and probably were
their chief patrons; as idolaters always have some particular gods, under whose protection, above all
others, they consider themselves to be placed. It may be conjectured that this “” was a sort of inferior god
that was added to the chief god “” as Mercury was to Jupiter. Under their names he includes also the rest
of the idols, and declares that all the superstitions and false worship of the Gentiles shall be overthrown,
when God shall lay low and triumph over their worshippers; because it shall then be manifest that he is
the righteous avenger of his Church.
Their idols shall be on the beasts. The Babylonians having haughtily boasted of the protection of false
gods, the Prophet rebukes that vain confidence, because the God of Israel will not only bring utter ruin on
that wicked nation, but also will cast down and treat disdainfully their gods. The reason why he says that
they shall be burdens of “” is, that they shall be laid on waggons and removed from one place to another,
and shall even be huddled together without any respect, as the waggoners think proper. This is what is
meant by “ cast down,” for the robbers shall collect into a large heap those gods which formerly occupied
an elevated station.

10. There can be no doubt, indeed, that this was fulfilled when the Persians and Medes took Babylon by
storm; for when the monarchy was removed, these idols were taken away as a part of the booty. But
Isaiah, though he predicted this, looked farther, that is, to the coming of Christ, who was to overtum and
destroy all false worship; for, when his kingdom has been established, all idols immediately fall to the
ground, and it is impossible that false religion and superstition can exist along with the knowledge of him.
By his brightness he dispels all darkness, so as to leave no room for false gods or superstitions; for, as
Paul says,
“ hath Christ to do with Belial? What hath light to do with darkness?”
(2Co_6:14.)
At the same time it ought to be observed, that the Prophet had his eye on the time when the Jews were
held in captivity; for they saw the Babylonians offer incense to idols, and ascribe to them supreme power,
as if the government of affairs depended on them; while the God of the Jews was treated with scorn, as if
he could not defend his people, or as if he cared nothing about them. For this reason he shews that there
will be so great a revolution, that the gods of the Babylonians, which were elevated so high, shall be laid
low, and God, who appeared to he low, shall rise up and avenge his people.
10. P KRETZMANN, 1-7, “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.
11. KELLY, “The chapters 46 - 48. close this section of the prophecy, the discussion of Israel's guilty
love of idols in presence of the doom of Babylon, the patron of idolatry and the instrument of the
punishment of the Jews for that sin.
Chapter 46 in the most spirited way contrasts the fall of the helpless objects of Babylonish worship
with God's gracious care over Israel. "Bel [their chief god, answering to the Zeus of the Greeks]
boweth down, Nebo [answering to the Greek Hermes] bendeth: their idols are upon the beasts, and
upon the cattle: your loads are lifted up, a burden to the weary [beast]. They bend, they bow down
together, they could not deliver the burden, and themselves are gone into captivity" (vv. 1, 2). Thus,
chief or subordinate these false deities could do nothing for their votaries, and could not deliver
themselves. The victorious foe carries them off as part of the spoil. The Persians detested idols.
On the other hand, Jehovah had carried Israel from their national birth to their old age: "Hearken unto
me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne [by me] from the
belly, who have been carried from the womb: even to old age I [am] He, and to hoary hairs will I carry
[you]: I have made and I will bear; and I will carry and will deliver" (vv. 3, 4).

11. Next follows the challenge to whom they would liken the God of Israel. As for the Chaldean gods, it
was but a question of gold and silver, which the goldsmith made up, and the people fell down and
worshipped. "To whom will ye liken me, and make [me] equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
Such as lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, hey hire a goldsmith, and he
maketh it a god; they fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him,
and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, [one] shall cry unto
him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Remember this, and show yourselves
men: bring [it] again to mind, ye transgressors" (vv. 5-8).
Nor is this the only appeal. It was well to bethink them that the gods of the nations were beneath
those that adored them: but the prophet adds, "Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God,
and there is none else; I [am] God, and there is none like me. declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times [the things] that are not done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all
my pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far
country. Yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed [it], I will also do it" (vv. 9-11).
Cyrus is here again cited as a striking proof of the reality of God's dealings with His people, and this
both in foreknowledge, in declared purpose, and in providential ways. This leads to the concluding
call: "Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that [are] far from righteousness: J bring near my
righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry; and I will give salvation in Zion
unto Israel my glory" (vv. 12, 13). Such is the end of Jehovah, and He is very pitiful and of tender
mercy. He Who carried His people as a nurse through the wilderness at the beginning will manifest
unfailing grace at the end. In the face of their long and manifold wanderings from Him Who did them
nothing but good, He will deliver. Yet will His salvation be no more sure than His righteousness. This
we know now in the gospel, as Israel also will when the kingdom comes in display.
2 They stoop and bow down together;
unable to rescue the burden,
they themselves go off into captivity.
1.BARNES, “They stoop - Bel, and Nebo, and all the Babylonian gods (see Isa_46:1).

12. They could not deliver the burden - The word ‘burden’ here, probably means the load of
metal, wood, and stone, of which the idols were composed. The gods whom the Babylonians
worshipped had not even power to protect the images which were made to represent them, and
which had now become a heavy burden to the animals and wains which were carrying them
away. They could not rescue them from the hands of the conqueror; and how unable were they,
therefore, to defend those who put their trust in them. The Vulgate renders this, ‘They could not
deliver him that bare them.’ The Septuagint, ‘You are carrying them like a burden bound on the
weary, faint, and hungry; who are all without strength, and unable to escape from battle; and as
for them, they are carried away captives!’
But themselves - Margin, as Hebrew, ‘Their soul.’ The sense is, that the gods thus
worshipped, so far from being able to defend those who worshipped them, had themselves
become captive, and were borne to a distant land.
2. CLARKE, “They could not deliver the burden “They could not deliver their
own charge” - That is, their worshippers, who ought to have been borne by them. See the two
next verses. The Chaldee and Syriac Versions render it in effect to the same purpose, those that
bear them, meaning their worshippers; but how they can render ‫משא‬ massa in an active sense, I
do not understand.
For ‫לא‬ lo, not, ‫ולא‬ velo, and they could not, is the reading of twenty-four of Kennicott’s,
sixteen of De Rossi’s, and two of my own MSS. The added ‫ו‬ vau gives more elegance to the
passage.
But themselves “Even they themselves” - For ‫ונפשם‬ venaphsham, an ancient MS. has ‫כי‬
‫נפשם‬ ki naphsham, with more force.
3. GILL, “They stoop, they bow together,.... Either the beasts under their burdens, or other
idols besides those mentioned; or rather the Babylonians themselves, who were obliged to
submit to the conquerors:
they could not deliver the burdens; the idols could not save themselves from being laid as
burdens upon the beasts, any more than they could save their worshippers: so the Targum
understands this and the preceding clause of them;
"they are cut off, and cut to pieces together, they could not deliver those that carried them;''
or else the Babylonians are designed, who could not save their gods from being used in this
shameful manner:
but themselves are gone into captivity, or "their souls" (m); what were as dear to them as
their own souls, their idols; to whom also souls may be ascribed by way of derision, being
inanimate as well as irrational; and it is not unusual for idols to be said to be carried captive;
hence those words of Tertullian, "manent et simulachra caplira": or rather the Babylonians, who
went into captivity themselves, and so could not save their idols: thus they who had led captive
the Jews are led captive themselves; and thus it will be with mystical Babylon, Rev_13:10.

13. 4. HENRY, “The idols cannot help one another (Isa_46:2): They stoop, they bow down
together. They are all alike, tottering things, and their day has come to fall. Their worshippers
cannot help them: They could not deliver the burden out of the enemy's hand, but themselves
(both the idols and the idolaters) have gone into captivity. Let not therefore God's people be
afraid of either. When God's ark was taken prisoner by the Philistines it proved a burden, not to
the beasts, but to the conquerors, who were forced to return it; but, when Bel and Nebo have
gone into captivity, their worshippers may even give their good word with them: they will never
recover themselves.
5. JAMISON, “deliver — from the enemies’ hands.
burden — their images laid on the beasts (Isa_46:1).
themselves — the gods, here also distinguished from their images.
6. PULPIT, “They stoop, they bow down together; i.e. all the Babylonian gods would suffer equally—
not one would be able to protect himself. They could not deliver the burden. A distinction is here made
between the god and the idol, which have hitherto been identified. The god was, in each case, unable to
deliver, or save from capture, the heavy "burden" of gold, or silver, or bronze (i.e. his own image) which
was carried off on the back of the "weary beast." On the contrary, the gods themselves—the "souls" of the
images, immanent in them—were carried off with the images into captivity.
7. KRETZMANN, “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.
8. CALVIN, “2.They could not withdraw themselves from the burden. He ridicules the vanity of such
gods as these, which have neither strength nor motion, and cannot defend or support themselves, and, in
a word, who need the aid of beasts of burden to carry them. There is, therefore, an implied contrast
between idols and the true God, who has no need of anything whatever. I interpret these words as
applied to beasts, but the Prophet heightens the disgrace by saying that they were a heavy burden to the
beasts themselves which would willingly have cast them off, and consequently that the false gods,
besides being of no use to their worshippers, also wearied out the beasts.
And their soul hath gone into captivity. This is a Hebrew mode of expression, by which he ridicules those
gods which have neither “” nor understanding. He speaks ironically, therefore, against useless and dumb
idols, when he says that they shall be carried into captivity along with their soul. But we must see if these
things cannot be retorted on the true God, whose ark, by which he gave testimony of his presence, was
taken by the Philistines; for in this way it appeared as if the Lord were a captive. (1Sa_4:11.) This
objection may be easily answered; for, although the Lord intended that the ark should be a testimony of
his presence, yet he forbade the Jews to fix their whole and exclusive attention upon it, but commanded

14. them to raise their eyes to heaven, and there to seek and adore God. He wished to be always worshipped
in a spiritual manner, (Joh_4:24,) and the ark was not adored instead of God, but was a symbol, by which
the people were led upwards, as by the hand, to God. The Gentiles, on the other hand, fixed their
attention on their idols, and attributed to them divine power.
It might even have been said that the Philistines were at length punished for their wickedness, and
acknowledged that they had to deal with the true God. (1Sa_5:6.) But that would not have been a
sufficient answer, because the Lord sometimes permitted his ark to be treated with derision, as is evident
from other passages of the history. The true solution therefore is, that the Lord, though he holds
intercourse with us by symbols and sacraments, yet wishes to be sought in heaven. To this must be
added, that he had openly declared, by memorable predictions, that he was not dragged as a captive by
conquerors, but that of his own accord he exposed his sanctuary to the sport of enemies, in order to
punish the sins of his people. Nor could the Jews, when the Temple had been thrown down and bumt,
and when the holy vessels were carried to Babylon, doubt that the same God whom they had worshipped
was the author of this punishment, since he had so frequently threatened by his prophets what then
happened.
3 “Listen to me, you descendants of Jacob,
all the remnant of the people of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
and have carried since you were born.
1.BARNES, “Hearken unto me - From this view of the captive gods, the address is now
turned to the Jews. The utter vanity of the idols had been set before them; and in view of that,
God now addresses his own people, and entreats them to put their trust in him. The address he
commences with words of great tenderness and endearment, designed to lead them to confide in
him as their Father and friend.
And all the remnant - All who were left from slaughter, and all who were borne into
captivity to Babylon. The language here is all full of tenderness, and is suited to inspire them
with confidence in God. The idols of the pagan, so far from being able to protect their
worshippers, were themselves carried away into ignoble bondage, but Yahweh was himself able
to carry his people, and to sustain them.

15. Which are borne by me - Like an indulgent father, or a tender nurse, he had carried them
from the very infancy of their nation. The same image occurs in Deu_1:31 : ‘And in the
wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his
son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into thins place.’ A similar figure occurs in
Exo_19:4 : ‘Ye have seen, how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself’ (so
Deu_32:11-12; compare Num_11:12; Isa_63:9). All this here stands opposed to the idols of the
Babylonians. They were unable to protect their people. They were themselves made captive. But
God had shown the part of a father and a protector to his people in all times. He had sustained
and guided them; he had never forsaken them; he had never, like the idol-gods, been compelled
to leave them in the power of their enemies. From the fact that he had always, even from the
infancy of their nation, thus protected them, they are called on to put their trust in him.
2. CLARKE, “Which are borne by me from the belly “Ye that have been borne by
me from the birth” - The prophet very ingeniously, and with great force, contrasts the power
of God, and his tender goodness effectually exerted towards his people, with the inability of the
false gods of the heathen. He like an indulgent father had carried his people in his arms, “as a
man carrieth his son,” Deu_1:31. He had protected them, and delivered them from their
distresses: whereas the idols of the heathen are forced to be carried about themselves and
removed from place to place, with great labor and fatigue, by their worshippers; nor can they
answer, or deliver their votaries, when they cry unto them.
Moses, expostulating with God on the weight of the charge laid upon him as leader of his
people, expresses that charge under the same image of a parent’s carrying his children, in very
strong terms: “Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them? that thou shouldest say
unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land
which thou swarest unto their fathers;” Num_11:12.
3. GILL, “Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob,.... The Jews, the descendants of Jacob:
and all the remnant of the house of Israel; those that remained of the ten tribes that had
been carried captive long ago. These may, in a spiritual sense, design those who are Israelites
indeed; the household of the God of Jacob; the chosen of God, and called; the remnant
according to the election of grace:
which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: here the
Lord distinguishes himself from the idols of the Babylonians; they were laid as burdens upon
beasts, and bore and carried by them; but the Lord is born and carried by none, but bears and
carries his people. The allusion is to tender parents that have compassion on their children as
soon as born, and take care of them, and bear them in their bosoms, and carry them in their
arms; and may have respect, in the literal sense, to the infant state of the Jews, both as a church
and commonwealth, when the Lord took pity on them, and care of them, and bore them as a
father bears his son; and bore with their manners too, and carried them all the days of old
through the wilderness to Canaan's land; see Num_11:12. It may be applied to the care of God in
the preservation of men by his providence, especially his own people, whose God he is from their
mother's belly; who takes them under his protection as soon as born, and carries them through
every state of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, and never leaves nor forsakes them; see
Psa_22:10, and with great propriety may be applied to regenerate persons, who, as soon as born

16. again, are regarded by the Lord in a very visible, tender, and compassionate manner; he "bears"
them in his bosom, and on his heart; he bears them in his arms; he puts his everlasting arms
underneath them; he bears with them, with all their weakness and infirmities, their peevishness
and frowardness; he bears them up under all their afflictions, and sustains all their burdens; he
bears them through and out of all their troubles and difficulties: he "carries" them, in like
manner, in his bosom, and in his arms; he "carries" them into his house, the church, which is the
nursery for them, where they are nursed and fed, and have the breasts of consolation drawn out
to them; he carries on the good work of grace in them; he carries them through all their trials
and exercises safe to heaven and eternal happiness; for they are poor, weak, helpless creatures,
like newly born babes, cannot go alone, but must be bore up and carried.
4. HENRY, “That the true God will never fail his worshippers: “You hear what has become of
Bel and Nebo, now hearken to me, O house of Jacob! Isa_46:3, Isa_46:4. Am I such a god as
these? No; though you are brought low, and the house of Israel is but a remnant, your God has
been, is, and ever will be, your powerful and faithful protector.”
1. Let God's Israel do him the justice to own that he has hitherto been kind to them, careful of
them, tender over them, and has all along done well for them. Let them own, (1.) That he bore
them at first: I have made. Out of what womb came they, but that of his mercy, and grace, and
promise? He formed them into a people and gave them their constitution. Every good man is
what God makes him. (2.) That he bore them up all along: You have been borne by me from the
belly, and carried from the womb. God began betimes to do them good, as soon as ever they
were formed into a nation, nay, when as yet they were very few, and strangers. God took them
under a special protection, and suffered no man to do them wrong, Psa_105:12-14. In the
infancy of their state, when they were not only foolish and helpless, as children, but forward and
peevish, God carried them in the arms of his power and love, bore them as upon eagles' wings,
Exo_19:4; Deu_32:11. Moses had not patience to carry them as the nursing father does the
sucking child (Num_11:12), but God bore them, and bore their manners, Act_13:18. And as God
began early to do them good (when Israel was a child, then I loved him), so he had constantly
continued to do them good: he had carried them from the womb to this day. And we may all
witness for God that he has been thus gracious to us. We have been borne by him from the belly,
from the womb, else we should have died from the womb and given up the ghost when we came
out of the belly. We have been the constant care of his kind providence, carried in the arms of
his power and in the bosom of his love and pity. The new man is so; all that in us which is born
of God is borne up by him, else it would soon fail. Our spiritual life is sustained by his grace as
necessarily and constantly as our natural life by his providence. The saints have acknowledged
that God has carried them from the womb, and have encouraged themselves with the
consideration of it in their greatest straits, Psa_22:9, Psa_22:10; Psa_71:5, Psa_71:6, Psa_71:17.
5. JAMISON, “in contrast to what precedes: Babylon’s idols, so far from bearing its people
safely are themselves borne off, a burden to the laden beast; but Jehovah bears His people in
safety even from the womb to old age (Isa_63:9; Deu_32:11; Psa_71:6, Psa_71:18). God
compares Himself to a nurse tenderly carrying a child; contrast Moses’ language (Num_11:12).
6. K&D 3-5, “From this approaching reduction of the gods of Babylon to their original
nothingness, several admonitions are now derived. The first admonition is addressed to all

17. Israel. “Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel: ye,
lifted up from the womb; ye, carried from the mother's lap! And till old age it is I, and to grey
hair I shall bear you on my shoulder: I have done it, and I shall carry; and I put upon my
shoulder, and deliver. To whom can ye compare me, and liken, and place side by side, that we
should be equal?” The house of Jacob is Judah here, as in Oba_1:18 (see Caspari on the
passage), Nah_2:3, and the house of Israel the same as the house of Joseph in Obadiah; whereas
in Amo_3:13; Amo_6:8; Amo_7:2, Jacob stands for Israel, in distinction from Judah. The
Assyrian exile was earlier than the Babylonian, and had already naturalized the greater part of
the exiles in a heathen land, and robbed them of their natural character, so that there was only a
remnant left by whom there was any hope that the prophet's message would be received. What
the exiles of both houses were to hear was the question in Isa_46:5, which called upon them to
consider the incomparable nature of their God, as deduced from what Jehovah could say of
Himself in relation to all Israel, and what He does say from ‫ים‬ ִ‫ס‬ ֻ‫מ‬ ֲ‫ע‬ ָ‫ה‬ onwards. Babylon carried its
idols, but all in vain: they were carried forth, without being able to save themselves; but Jehovah
carried His people, and saved them. The expressions, “from the womb, and from the mother's
lap,” point back to the time when the nation which had been in process of formation from the
time of Abraham onwards came out of Egypt, and was born, as it were, into the light of the
world. From this time forward it had lain upon Jehovah like a willingly adopted burden, and He
had carried it as a nurse carries a suckling (Num_11:12), and an eagle its young (Deu_32:11). In
Isa_46:4 the attributes of the people are carried on in direct (not relative) self-assertions on the
part of Jehovah. The senectus and canities are obviously those of the people - not, however, as
though it was already in a state of dotage (as Hitzig maintains, appealing erroneously to
Isa_47:6), but as denoting the future and latest periods of its history. Even till then Jehovah is
He, i.e., the Absolute, and always the same (see Isa_41:4). As He has acted in the past, so will He
act at all times - supporting and saving His people. Hence He could properly ask, Whom could
you place by the side of me, so that we should be equal? (Vav consec. as in Isa_40:25).
7. CHARLES SIMEON, “GOD’S CARE FOR HIS PEOPLE
Isa_46:3-5. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are
borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: and even to your old age I am he; and even
to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, end I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. To whom
will you liken me?
THAT men who know nothing of the One true God should form to themselves idols to represent imaginary
gods, is not so much to be wondered at: because every child of man feels himself dependent on some
superior Being, though of the nature or character of that being he has no distinct conception. But that
persons who have been instructed in the knowledge of Jehovah, and been themselves eye-witnesses of
his mighty works, should have any disposition to renounce him, and to place their dependence on idols of
wood and stone, is utterly unaccountable, on any other principle than that of man’s total depravity, and
radical alienation of heart from God. But such is the fact: man is prone to idolatry: his “carnal mind is
enmity against God:” and from the time of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt to the time of their
captivity in Babylon, not all the judgments or mercies with which they were visited from time to time could
keep them from indulging their favourite propensity. One would have thought that the very things which
they had seen, even the deportation of the Babylonish idols by the hands of their enemies, should have
been sufficient to convince them, that nothing formed by mortal hands could save a man. The prophet, in
Jehovah’s name, here appeals to them respecting this: See, says he, what helpless things those idols

18. are! “Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth: their idols (unable to move themselves) were upon the beasts,
and upon the cattle; your carriages were heavy loaden with them; they were a burthen to the weary
beast; and are themselves gone into captivity [Note: ver. 1, 2.].” ‘But how different from them am I!’ says
Jehovah: ‘They are carried by their votaries, yea, and by their enemies too, incapable of resistance or of
motion: whereas I carry my people: I have carried them from the very womb; and I “will carry them to hoar
hairs,” even to the latest hour of their lives.’
That we may enter more fully into this description which Jehovah gives of himself, let us consider,
I. What he has done for his people—
Jehovah addresses his people here as his children; and brings to their minds what he had done for that
whole nation in the wilderness. He had borne them in his arms as a father does his child—
[In the wilderness, when the people were required to march, it must of necessity happen that many
females were not in a condition to carry their new-born infants, and more especially as the journeys were
often of long continuance. Hence the fathers are represented as carrying their children
[Note: Num_11:12.]: and under this character God represents himself as having carried them
[Note: Deu_1:31.]. Now the whole nation at that time were precisely in the state of little infants; as
ignorant of the way which they were to go; as incapable of providing sustenance for themselves; as
unable to protect themselves from enemies, or from a variety of dangers to which they were exposed.
They needed in every respect Jehovah’s care, as much as a new-born infant the attention of its parents.
And all this care did God bestow upon them. From the first moment of their departure from Egypt, he went
before them in the pillar and the cloud: he sought out for them the places where they should encamp; he
regulated all their motions; he supplied them with bread from heaven, and with water from the rock; he
delivered them from every enemy; and carried them in perfect safety for the space of forty years. They
were cast upon him, as it were, from the womb; and from the womb he thus Administered to them with
parental care and tenderness.]
And in this way he still carries in his arms the true Israel—
[The nation of Israel typically represented those, who, as Believers in Christ, are in a spiritual sense the
children of Abraham. And these, who are Israelites indeed, are precisely in the state of the Jews in the
wilderness, or of infants in their parents’ arms. Their incapacity to guide or support themselves is quite as
great, and their need of succour from on high as urgent. But God has taken the charge of them, and
administered to them whatsoever their necessities required. Look ye back, ye “remnant of the house of
Israel,” and say, whether God has not incessantly watched over you for good; whether he has not borne
with your weaknesses, supplied your wants, directed your ways, upheld you in your goings, and kept you
from ten thousand snares, into which you must have inevitably fallen, and by which you must long since
have perished, if he had for one hour intermitted his tender care? You cannot but acknowledge, that to
you, as well as to the Jewish nation, is that description applicable: “He found him in a desert land, and in
the waste howling wilderness: he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them,
beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him
[Note: Deu_22:10-12.].”]
But God further intimates,
II. What he has engaged to do for them—

19. To the Jews he promised a continuance of his care—
[The individuals whom he brought forth out of Egypt he suffered to die in the wilderness, on account of
their multiplied iniquities: but the nation, as a nation, he preserved; and those children, whom their
unbelieving parents supposed to be doomed to inevitable destruction, he brought in safety to the
Promised Land. And though, by their innumerable transgressions, the nation has brought down his
displeasure upon them, insomuch that they are scattered over the face of the whole earth, yet are they
preserved in a way that no other nation under heaven ever has been, in order that they may ultimately
enjoy all the blessings prepared for them. They are at this day living witnesses for him, that “he changeth
not,” but is still the same gracious and compassionate God as ever [Note: This is the import of “I am he.”
See Psa_102:27.].]
To the spiritual Israel also he engages that he will keep them, even to the end—
[“His gifts and calling are without repentance [Note: Rom_11:29.].” “Where he has begun a good work, he
will carry it on, and perfect it, unto the day of Christ [Note: Php_1:6.].” If “he has laid in our hearts the
foundation of his spiritual temple, he will complete it [Note: Zec_4:9.];” and “be the finisher of that faith of
which he has been the author [Note: Heb_12:2.].” “His ways in this respect are not like the ways of
men:” they, either from impotence or versatility, often relinquish their plans: he never does. In his own
mind he considers the blessings which he bestows, not merely as a benefit conferred, but as a pledge of
future blessings: “He will not forsake his people, because it hath pleased him to make them his people
[Note: 1Sa_12:22.].” Hence we are justified in founding on the experience of past benefits an assured
expectation of future: “Thou hast delivered my soul from death: Wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling,
that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living [Note: Psa_56:13.]?” The very repetitions in our
text strongly confirm this important truth: “Even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will
bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” And to the same effect the Apostle Paul assuring us that God
will keep his engagements with us, uses in one short sentence no less than five negatives; “He will never,
never leave thee; he will never, never, never forsake thee [Note: Heb_13:5-6.].”]
From this statement of his own ways, he teaches us to infer,
III. His unrivalled title to our regard—
“To whom will ye liken me?” says he to his people of old: Are any of the gods of the heathen able to effect
for their worshippers what I have wrought for you? So will I say to those who have received spiritual
blessings at his hands: “To whom will ye liken him?” Who in the whole universe has such a title,
1. To your confidence?
[Are there any of the sons of man that could have brought you out of darkness into light, as he has done;
or turned you from the power of Satan unto God? Could any of them have preserved you from the snares
which Satan has spread for your feet? Who amongst them is able to keep you in future? or have you any
sufficiency in yourselves, so as to “direct your own paths [Note: Jer_10:23.],” and to maintain your own
steadfastness? No, verily: and nothing but a “curse awaits the man who trusteth in man, or who maketh
flesh his arm [Note: Jer_17:5-6.].” God alone is equal to this task [Note: 2Co_1:21; 2Co_3:5.]: in him
alone therefore must be all our hope, and all our trust — — —]
2. To your love—

20. [Amongst your fellow-creatures you may have many who, both for their personal qualities and their
kindness to you, are entitled to your esteem. But to whom are you indebted, as you are to your
Redeeming God? He has come down from heaven for you: he has died upon the cross for you: he has
wrought out a salvation for you: he has by his Holy Spirit imparted that salvation to your souls: HE has
given you that measure of stability which you have already evinced; and has engaged his almighty power
to keep you even to the end. Where have you ever found such a Benefactor as he? where, one who can
vie with him in any one particular? Truly in comparison of him the whole creation is but as the dust upon
the balance: and therefore you should love him infinitely above all, and say, “Whom have I in heaven but
thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee [Note: Psa_73:25.]” — — —]
Let me then, in conclusion, address myself,
1. To those who entertain a rival in their hearts—
[You can easily see how just God’s indignation was against those who worshipped graven images, in
preference to him: but know, that he is no less offended with those who “provoke him to jealousy” by
“setting up idols in their hearts.” He says, and well may say, “My son, give me thine heart
[Note: Pro_23:26.].” This is his exclusive right: and if you withhold it from him, it matters not what else you
give: it is all hateful in his eyes, and never will come before him with acceptance: “your very prayers will
be an abomination in his sight [Note: Pro_15:8.],” and your best sacrifices only as “the cutting off a dog’s
neck, or offering swine’s blood [Note:Isa_66:3.]”— — —]
2. To those who profess themselves to have experienced God’s tender care—
[What gratitude becomes those who are so indebted to their God! Was Israel highly favoured above the
heathen? Their obligations were nothing in comparison of yours. Their blessings, though great, were
temporal: yours are spiritual and eternal — — — But look around you and see, how many even of your
own friends and relatives are yet in bondage to their sins; whilst you have been delivered with a mighty
hand and an outstretched arm. Look also to those who have been “brought out of the world for a season,
and yet been again entangled with it and overcome [Note: 2Pe_2:20.];” whilst you are yet “holding on your
way.” And who is it that has made the difference between you? Must you not say, “By the grace of God I
am what I am?” Stir up then your souls to thankfulness, and say, “By 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 [Note: Psa_7:6.].”
And let your confidence in him for the future be entire. Lie in his hands precisely as a little infant in its
parent’s arms; and look to him, exactly as the Israelites in the wilderness did, to direct your every way,
and to supply your every want. It is not possible for your reliance on God to be too simple or too entire. In
this respect also is David an excellent pattern for you to follow: “Thou art He that took me out of the
womb: thou didst make me hope, when I was upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon thee from the
womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly. Be not far from me! for trouble is near: for there is none to
help. Be not thou far from me, O Lord! O my strength, haste thee to help me [Note: Psa_22:9-
11; Psa_22:19.]!”
Let your devotion to him also be unreserved. “You are not your own, but his; and therefore you should
glorify him with your bodies and your spirits, which are his [Note: 1Co_6:20.].” This is what God expects at
your hands: “Ye have seen,” says he, “how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.
Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar

21. treasure unto me, above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of
priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of
Israel [Note: Exo_19:4-6.].” Yes, these words I do speak to you in God’s name. Your privileges are all a
delusion, if they be not productive of this effect: but if they lead to this issue, then is God glorified in you,
and ye shall ere long be glorified with him in the realms of bliss [Note: 2Th_1:11-12.].]
8. KRETZMANN, “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;
9. CALVIN, “3.Hear me. Here the Prophet beautifully points out the vast difference between the true
God and idols. Having formerly said that the Babylonian gods must be drawn on waggons and carts,
because they consist of dead matter, he now ascribes a widely different office to the God of Israel,
namely, that he “” his people, like a mother, who carries the child in her womb, and afterwards carries it in
her bosom. He addresses the Jews, that they may return an answer from their experience; for this ought
to have powerfully affected them, when they actually felt that he bore them and their burdens. He,
therefore, makes use of a highly appropriate contrast, and concludes from the preceding statements: “
that I am the true God, and that I differ widely from idols, which are useless and dead weights; for you
have known and experienced my power by constant benefits, which I have not ceased to confer upon you
from the womb.” God is not only powerful in himself, but diffuses his power through all the creatures; so
that we feel his strength and energy.
Who are carried from the womb. This is a very expressive metaphor, by which God compares himself to a
mother who carries a child in her womb. He speaks of the past time, when he began to give them
testimonies of his grace. Yet the words might be taken as meaning simply that God kindly nourished that
people, like an infant taken from its mother’ womb, and carried it in his bosom, as the Psalmist says,
“ was cast upon thee from the womb, thou art my God from my mother’ belly.”
(Psa_22:10.)
But as God did not only begin to act as the father and nurse of his people from the time when they were
born, but also “ them” (Jas_1:18) spiritually, I do not object to extending the words so far as to mean, that
they were brought, as it were, out of the bowels of God into a new life and the hope of an eternal
inheritance.
If it be objected, that God is everywhere called “ Father,” (Jer_31:9; Mal_1:6,) and that this title is more
appropriate to him, I reply, that no figures of speech can describe God’ extraordinary affection towards us;
for it is infinite and various; so that, if all that can be said or imagined about love were brought together
into one, yet it would be surpassed by the greatness of the love of God. By no metaphor, therefore, can
his incomparable goodness be described. If you understand it, simply to mean that God, from the time
that he begat them, gently carried and nourished them in his bosom, this will agree admirably with what
we find in the Song of Moses,

22. “ bore them, and carried them, as an eagle carrieth her young on her wings.” (Deu_32:11.)
In a word, the intention of the Prophet is to shew, that the Jews, if they do not choose to forget their
descent, cannot arrive at any other conclusion than that they were not begotten in vain, and that God,
who has manifested himself to be both their Father and their Mother, will always assist them; and
likewise, that they have known his power by uninterrupted experience, so that they ought not to pay
homage to idols.
All the remnant of the house of Israel. By calling them a “” he means, as we formerly remarked, that the
greater part had been alienated from the Church by their revolt, so that the hope of deliverance belonged
only to a very small number. On this account he demands from them a hearing; for unbelievers, not less
than heathen nations, were utterly deaf to his voice. Now, although the people were so far from being in
their unbroken strength, that the dispersion of them had left but a small number behind, yet God bids
them consider how wonderfully they have been hitherto preserved, that they may not doubt that he will
henceforth act towards them, as he has hitherto acted, the part of both father and mother. And when he
demands that they shall listen to him, he shews that the true and indeed the only remedy for our
distresses and calamities is, to hang on his mouth, and to be attentive to the promises of grace; for then
shall we have sufficient courage to bear every affliction; but if not, the way is opened for despair, and we
ought not to expect anything else than destruction.
4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
1.BARNES, “And even to your old age, I am he - Or rather, I am the same. I remain,
unchangeably, with the same tenderness, the same affection, the same care. In this the care of
God for his people surpasses that of the most tender parent, and the most kind nourisher of the
young. The care of the parent naturally dies away as the child reaches manhood, and he is
usually removed by death before the son or daughter that excited so much solicitude in infancy
and childhood, reaches old age. But not so with God. His people are always the objects of his
tender solicitude. Age does not make them less dependent, and experience only teaches them
more and more their need of his sustaining grace. The argument here is, that he who had
watched over the infancy of his people with so much solicitude, would not leave them in the
exposures, and infirmities, and trials of the advanced years of their history. The doctrine is, first,

23. that his people always need his protection and care; secondly, that he will never leave nor
forsake them; thirdly, that he who is the God of infancy and childhood will be the God of age,
and that he will not leave or forsake his people, who have been the objects of his care and
affection in childhood, when they become old. For though this passage refers primarily to a
people, or a community as such, yet I see no reason why the principle should not be regarded as
applicable to those who are literally aged. They need the care of God no less than childhood
does; and if they have walked in his ways in the vigor and strength of their life, he will not cast
them off ‘when they are old and gray-headed.’ Hoary hairs, therefore, if ‘found in the way of
righteousness.’ may trust in God; and the ‘second childhood’ of man may find him no less
certainly a protector than the first.
2. PULPIT, “Even to your old age I am he; even to hoar hairs, etc. The nurse—even the mother—soon
grows tired of carrying the child, and leaves him to shift for himself. But God's tender care for his people
lasts from their infancy, through their boyhood and manhood, to their old age. The everlasting arms never
weary. God's watchfulness, his providence, his protection, never fail. I have made, and I will bear. The
maker of a thing has naturally regard to what he has made, loves it, desires its good, seeks to defend and
save it.
3. GILL, “And even to your old age I am he,.... The same he ever was, the eternal and
unchangeable Jehovah; the same in his love and affections; in his sympathy and care; in his
power and protection; in his promises, truth, and faithfulness to his people, in their last days, as
at the first moment of their conversion; and therefore they are safe; see Psa_102:27,
and even to hoar hairs will I carry you (n); which is doing more than the most tender
parent does, or can, or need to do! God will not leave his people in the decline of life, when
pressing infirmities are upon them, and they stand in as much need as ever of being bore up,
supported, and carried: wherefore it follows,
I have made; these persons, not merely as creatures, but as new creatures; they are formed for
myself; they are my sons and daughters, the works of my hands: I have an interest in them,
therefore I will bear, even I will carry: from the first of their regeneration, to their
entrance into glory; See Gill on Isa_46:3;
And will deliver you; out of all affliction; out of all temptations; out of the hand of every
enemy; from a final and total falling away; from a body of sin and death; from death eternal, and
wrath to come; and even at last from the grave and all corruption.
(n) This seems to express more than old age, as Ben Melech observes hence the Jews say, a man
sixty years old is come to old age, and one of seventy to hoary hairs.
4. HENRY, “He will then do them the kindness to promise that he will never leave them. He
that was their first will be their last; he that was the author will be the finisher of their well-being
(Isa_46:4): “You have been borne by me from the belly, nursed when you were children; and
even to your old age I am he, when, by reason of your decays and infirmities, you will need help
as much as in your infancy.” Israel were now growing old, so was their covenant by which they
were incorporated, Heb_8:13. Gray hairs were here and there upon them, Hos_7:9. And they

24. had hastened their old age, and the calamities of it, by their irregularities. But God will not cast
them off now, will not fail them when their strength fails; he is still their God, will still carry
them in the same everlasting arms that were laid under them in Moses's time, Deu_33:27. He
has made them and owns his interest in them, and therefore he will bear them, will bear with
their infirmities, and bear them up under their afflictions: “Even I will carry and will deliver
them; I will now bear them upon eagles' wings out of Babylon, as in their infancy I bore them
out of Egypt.” This promise to aged Israel is applicable to every aged Israelite. God has
graciously engaged to support and comfort his faithful servants, even in their old age: “Even to
your old age, when you grow unfit for business, when you are compassed with infirmities, and
perhaps your relations begin to grow weary of you, yet I am he - he that I am, he that I have been
- the very same by whom you have been borne from the belly and carried from the womb. You
change, but I am the same. I am he that I have promised to be, he that you have found me, and
he that you would have me to be. I will carry you, I will bear, will bear you up and bear you out,
and will carry you on in your way and carry you home at last.”
5. JAMISON, “old age — As “your” - “you” - “you,” are not in the Hebrew, the sentiment is
more general than English Version, though of course it includes the Jews from the infancy to the
more advanced age of their history (Isa_47:6).
I am he — that is, the same (Psa_102:27; Joh_8:24; Heb_13:8).
I will bear ... carry — Not only do I not need to be borne and carried Myself, as the idols
(Isa_46:1).
6. PULPIT, “Even to your old age I am he; even to hoar hairs, etc. The nurse—even the mother—soon
grows tired of carrying the child, and leaves him to shift for himself. But God's tender care for his people
lasts from their infancy, through their boyhood and manhood, to their old age. The everlasting arms never
weary. God's watchfulness, his providence, his protection, never fail. I have made, and I will bear. The
maker of a thing has naturally regard to what he has made, loves it, desires its good, seeks to defend and
save it
God's care for the aged.
"And even to your old age I am he," etc. What a contrast between God and man! Concerning how many
may it be said that they are forgotten in old age! Sometimes even children are faithless to their parents,
and age has died in a workhouse, when children have been well-to-do. But change comes, too, in other
relationships. The world does not want us when we are worn out. Its sweet songs can charm no more.
The cunning of the worker's hand fails. The preacher faints. A new generation of strength and health has
won the palm. Then, mark—
I. THE SURPRISE. Even. At the time when the world draws off, God comes nearer. Weakness is always
welcome to him. He loves to comfort. His infinite strength is not weakened by all outgoings of help to
others. Wherever, in age, sickness confines us, or solitude keeps us, there is our Father. Even then,
when heart and flesh faint and fail. He has not merely promised this, but the Jacobs of the world can
attest the truth: "All my life long." And apart from promise and experience, it is God's nature so to do.
II. THE REASONS.

25. 1. "I have made." God will not, as Job says, forget us, because "thou hast a desire to the work of thy
hands."
2. "I have rescued." What else says the prophet? "I will carry and deliver you." What we could not bear
away, God, in the person of his Son, will do for us. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world!' Hoar hairs may have their perfect whiteness, but hoar hearts have not, and we need a Saviour
to the end. Nor is this all. Old age has its sorrows as well as its sins. The young have not always
sympathy with the old. They do not understand what it is to feel so "alone," with buried generations
behind, who once joined in the race of life with them, and who worshipped with them in the house of God.
Those who admired and understood and loved them are gone, and a generation has risen up who know
not Joseph. Beautifully does the next verse begin, "To whom will ye liken me?" "Even to your old age I am
he." Always a Father, always a Saviour, always a Friend.—W.M.S.
7.KRETZMANN, “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.
8. CALVIN, “4And even to old age. Here I explain the copulative ‫ו‬ (vau) to mean therefore; and the
reasoning ought to be carefully observed, for he argues thus, “ have begotten and brought you forth;” and
again, “ when you were little children, I carried you in my arms, and therefore I will be the guardian of your
life till the end.” Thus also David reasons,
“ art he who brought me out of the womb; I trusted in thee while I hung on my mother’ breasts; I was cast
upon thee from my birth; thou art my God from my mother’ womb.”
(Psa_22:10.)
He therefore promises that he will always be a Father to the Jews; and hence we see that we ought to
cherish assured confidence of salvation from the time that the Lord hath once begun it in us, for he
wishes to continue his work till the end. “ Lord,” says David, “ complete what he hath begun;” and again,
“ Lord, thy loving-kindness is eternal, and thou wilt not forsake the works of thy hands.” (Psa_138:8.)
I am the same. The Hebrew word ‫הוא‬ (hu) is, in my opinion, very emphatic, though some interpreters
render it simply by the demonstrative pronoun He; (216) but it means that God is always “ same” and like
himself, not only in his essence, but with respect to us, so that we ourselves shall feel that he is the same.
When he says, “ to old age,” (217) it might be thought absurd; for we ought to become full-grown men after
having been carried by God from infancy. But if any one shall examine it properly, it will be found that we
never make so great progress as not to need to be upheld by the strength of God, for otherwise the most
perfect man would stumble every moment; as David also testifies,
“ me not in the time of old age, withdraw not from me when my strength faileth.” (Psa_71:9.)
I have made and will carry. He again argues in the same manner. God does not regard what we deserve,
but continues his grace toward us; and therefore we ought to draw confidence from it, “ didst createus,

26. not only that we might be human beings, but that we might be thy children; and therefore thou wilt
continue till the end to exercise continually toward us the care of a father and of a mother.”
(216) “ (am) he.” (Eng. Ver.) This is the literal rendering. — Ed.
(217) “‘ thou shalt be old, and thy strength shall fail, (for thou hast no merits or works of righteousness,) I
am the same as to my mercy and kindness, to keep, and carry, and bear, and deliver;’ for the Prophet
had said of the idol that it is carried about, and cannot rid itself of its own burden, and therefore God says
here, ‘ am He who carry others and bear my own burden.’” —Jarchi.
5 “With whom will you compare me or count me
equal?
To whom will you liken me that we may be
compared?
1.BARNES, “To whom will ye liken me - (see the notes at Isa_40:18, Isa_40:25). The
design of this and the following verses is to show the folly of idolatry, and the vanity of trusting
in idols. This is a subject that the prophet often dwells on. The argument here is derived from
the fact that the idols of Babylon were unable to defend the city, and were themselves carried
away in triumph Isa_46:1-2. If so, how vain was it to rely on them! how foolish to suppose that
the living and true God could resemble such weak and defenseless blocks!
2. PULPIT, “To whom will ye liken me? (comp. Isa_40:18.) Am I to be likened to the idols of Babylon?
Will you make images of me? Bethink you what the very nature of an idol is how contrary to my nature!
My idol would be no more capable of helping itself or others than the images of Nebo or Bel-Merodach.
3. GILL, “To whom will ye liken me?.... Was it lawful that any likeness might be made,
which yet is forbidden, Exo_20:4 what likeness could be thought of? is there any creature in
heaven or earth, among all the angels or sons of men, to whom God can be likened, who has
done such works of power, and acts of grace, as to care and provide not only for the house of
Israel, from the beginning of their state to the close of it, but for all his creatures from the

27. beginning of life to the end thereof, yea, from the beginning of the world to the end of it, and has
shown such special grace and goodness to his chosen people, in such a kind and tender manner?
And make me equal; or any equal to him in power and goodness, since all are but worms,
dust, and ashes, as the small dust of the balance, yea, as nothing in comparison of him.
And compare me, that we may be like? which is impossible to be done; for what
comparison or likeness can there be between the Creator and a creature, between an infinite,
immense, and eternal Being, possessed of all perfections, and a finite, frail, imperfect one? see
Isa_40:18. To pretend to frame a likeness of such a Being, is to act the absurd and stupid part
the Heathens do, described in the following verses.
4. HENRY, “The deliverance of Israel by the destruction of Babylon (the general subject of all
these chapters) is here insisted upon, and again promised, for the conviction both of idolaters
who set up as rivals with God, and of oppressors who were enemies to the people of God.
I. For the conviction of those who made and worshipped idols, especially those of Israel who
did so, who would have images of their God, as the Babylonians had of theirs,
1. He challenges them either to frame an image that should be thought a resemblance of him or
to set up any being that should stand in competition with him (Isa_46:5): To whom will you
liken me? It is absurd to think of representing an infinite and eternal Spirit by the figure of any
creature whatsoever. It is to change his truth into a lie and to turn his glory into shame. None
ever saw any similitude of him, nor can see his face and live. To whom then can we liken God?
Isa_40:18, Isa_40:25. It is likewise absurd to think of making any creature equal with the
Creator, who is infinitely above the noblest creatures, yea, or to make any comparison between
the creature and the Creator, since between infinite and finite there is no proportion.
5. sbc, “In these words, as in other and similar passages of Scripture, God asserts an
immeasurable difference between Himself and all created beings.
I. We distinguish the Creator from every creature by declaring Him self-existent. There is no way
of accounting for the origin of everything except by supposing something which never had
origin. Nothing could have begun to be unless there had been something which never began to
be. Here is the grand distinction between the Creator and the creature: the being of the one is
underived, and that of the other derived. The existence of all creatures is a dependent existence;
it has been imparted by another, and may be withdrawn by that other. The existence of the
Creator is a necessary existence, altogether independent, indebted to none for commencement,
and resting on none for continuance. It is by His name Jehovah—that name which breathes self-
existence—that God proclaims Himself inscrutable and unimaginable.
II. We learn from this the vanity of all attempts to explain or illustrate the Trinity in Unity. If we
were able to produce exact instances of the union of three in one, we should have no right to
point it out as at all parallel with the union of the Godhead. We ought to know beforehand that
the created can furnish no delineation of the uncreated; so that it shows a forgetfulness of the
self-existence of God to seek His resemblance in what he hath called into being. He best shows
the workings of a sound judgment and ripened intellect who, in such a matter as the doctrine of
the Trinity, submits to the disclosures of revelation, and receives it on the authority of God,
though unable to explain it through any reasoning of his own. The doctrine of the Trinity is
above reason, but it is not against reason.

28. III. Consider the paramount importance of the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the
Trinity is so bound up with the whole of Christianity, that to think of removing it and yet of
preserving the religion is to think of taking from the body all its sinew and its bone, and yet
leaving it all its symmetry and its strength. The whole falls to pieces if you destroy this doctrine.
The short but irresistible way of proving that the doctrine of the Trinity is in the largest sense a
practical doctrine is to remind you that if this doctrine be false, Jesus Christ is nothing more
than a man and the Holy Spirit nothing more than a principle or quality. To remove the doctrine
of the Trinity is to remove whatever is peculiar to Christianity, to reduce the religion to a system
of loftier morals and stronger sanctions than the world before possessed; but nevertheless
having nothing to deserve the name of Gospel, because containing no tidings of an expiation for
sin. Without a Trinity I must save myself; with a Trinity I am to be saved through Christ.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1731.
6. KRETZMANN, “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.
7. BI, “Idols cannot represent God
The Jews might have alleged that they served not the false gods of the Gentiles, but the God of Israel;
and that they used images when they worshipped Him only that they might have before their eyes, like
other nations, some beautiful object. This delusive notion is here reprobated; and they were taught that
there is neither likeness nor equality betwixt the true God and these foolish pretended resemblances
made of Him by the hands of men. (R. Macculloch.)
God incomprehensible by mere reason
God asserts an immeasurable difference between Himself and all created beings.
1. We distinguish the Creator from every creature by declaring Him self-existent. There is no way of
accounting for the origin of everything except by supposing something which never had origin. Nothing
could have begun to be unless there had been something which never began to be. Here is the grand
distinction between the Creator and the creature: the being of the one is underived, and that of the other
derived. The existence of all creatures is a dependent existence; it has been imparted by another, and
may be withdrawn by that other. The existence of the Creator is a necessary existence, altogether
independent, indebted to none for commencement, and resting on none for continuance. It is by His
name Jehovah--that name which breathes self-existence--that God proclaims Himself inscrutable and
unimaginable.
2. We learn from this the vanity of all attempts to explain or illustrate the Trinity in Unity. If we were able to

29. produce exact instances of the union of three in one, we should have no right to point it out as at all
parallel with the union of the Godhead. We ought to know beforehand that the created can furnish no
delineation of the uncreated; so that it shows a forgetfulness of the self-existence of God to seek His
resemblance in what He hath called into being. He best shows the workings of a sound judgment and
ripened intellect who, in such a matter as the doctrine of the Trinity, submits to the disclosures of
revelation, and receives it on the authority of God, though unable to explain it through any reasoning of
his own. The doctrine of the Trinity is above reason, but it is not against reason.
3. Consider the paramount importance of the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is so bound
up with the whole of Christianity, that to think of removing it and yet of preserving the religion is to think of
taking from the body all its sinew and its bone, and yet leaving it all its symmetry and its strength. The
whole falls to pieces if you destroy this doctrine. The short but irresistible way of proving that the doctrine
of the Trinity is in the largest sense a practical doctrine is to remind you that if this doctrine be false,
Jesus Christ is nothing more than a man and the Holy Spirit nothing more than a principle or quality. To
remove the doctrine of the Trinity is to remove whatever is peculiar to Christianity, to reduce the religion to
a system of loftier morals and stronger sanctions than the world before possessed; but, nevertheless,
having nothing to deserve the name of Gospel, because containing no tidings of an expiation for sin. (H.
Melvill, B. D.)
8. CALVIN, “5.To whom will ye liken and compare me? Here the Prophet introduces the Lord as
remonstrating with the Jews, because they distrusted and doubted his power, and, in a word, because
they put him on a level with idols, and even placed idols above him. When they saw the Babylonians
enjoy prosperity, they thought that their hope was gone, and that the remembrance of the covenant had
faded away, and hardly believed that God was in heaven or took any concern about them. On this
account the Lord complains that they ascribe some power to idols, and that thus they east his power into
the shade. This subject was formerly discussed under the forty-second, forty-third, and following
chapters; and therefore it is unnecessary to repeat observations in each word.
In order that they may not estimate the power of God by the present condition of things, he bids them
raise their minds higher. In like manner, when we see the Papists enjoy prosperity, if we should entertain
doubts whether or not they possessed the true religion, we would need to be dissuaded by the same
exhortation; for this would be to compare God with idols. And we ought carefully to observe this
circumstance, the forgetfulness or disregard of which has led many commentators absurdly to weaken
this statement, by supposing that the Prophet merely attacks superstitious persons who ascribe some
divine power to wood or stone, because this degrades the glory of God by comparing him to dead things.
But I have no doubt that he reproves that sinful and wicked conclusion by which the people, when they
were weighed down by adversity, imagined that God was favorable to the Babylonians; for, if he had been
favorable to them, it would follow that he approves of idolatry, and thus his honor would have been
conveyed to dumb creatures. We may likewise draw from it a general doctrine that God is robbed of his
glory, when he is compared to dumb and senseless things, as Paul also applies the passage
appropriately. (Act_17:29.)

30. 6 Some pour out gold from their bags
and weigh out silver on the scales;
they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god,
and they bow down and worship it.
1.BARNES, “They lavish gold - The word used here means properly to shake out; and then
to pour out abundantly, or in a lavish manner. It is used in connection with the idea of
squandering in Deu_21:20; Pro_23:21; Pro_28:7. Here the idea is, that they spared no expense;
they poured out gold as if it were vile and worthless, in order to make an idol. The design of this
verse is, to show the superstition of those who were idolaters; and, particularly, how much they
were willing to devote in order to maintain idol-worship.
Out of the bag - They pour their gold out of the bag, or purse, where they have kept it; that
is, they lavish it freely.
And weigh silver in the balance - Perhaps the idea is here, that they used silver so lavishly
that they did not wait to count it, but weighed it as they would the grosser metals. The word used
here and translated ‘balance’ (‫קנה‬ qaneh), means properly “cane, reed, calamus”; then a
measuring reed or rod Eze_40:3, Eze_40:5; then a rod, or beam of a balance, or scales (Greek ζυ
γᆵς zugos).
And hire a goldsmith - (See the notes at Isa_40:19-20).
And he maketh it a god - The goldsmith manufactures the gold and the silver into an
image. The object of the prophet is to deride the custom of offering divine homage to a god
formed in this manner (see the notes at Isa_44:9-19).
2. GILL, “They lavish gold out of the bag,.... As if it was of no value and account; that is,
the Heathen idolaters, some of them, who are excessively devoted to idolatry; these, being rich,
take out their bags of gold, and give it in a very profuse manner to a workman to make a golden
image for them, not caring what it cost them; such an one was that which Nebuchadnezzar
made, sixty cubits high, and six broad, Dan_3:1 see an instance of profuseness this way in the
Israelites themselves, Exo_32:2.
And weigh silver in the balance; or "with a reed" (o). Others, though idolaters, yet less
devoted to idolatry, and more tenacious of their money, make silver do for a god, and weigh it

31. out to the workman, that it be made of such a weight, and no more, and that they might not be
cheated of their silver; or they weighed it to pay the workman for his workmanship. Money
formerly was not coined and stamped, so not numbered by pieces, but weighed.
And hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god; a "finer" or "founder", with whom they
agree for such a sum of money, and he, of the gold or silver that is put into his hands, makes a
god: he casts and moulds it into such a form or shape that is agreed upon, and this is called a
god; though nothing but a piece of gold or silver fashioned by art and man's device, and the work
of his hands:
they fall down, yea, they worship; the god they made; both the artificer, and he that
employed him, fall down upon their knees, or their faces, and pay divine worship add adoration
to the idol; though the one knew it was made of his own gold or silver, and the other knew it to
be the workmanship of his hands. Worshipping is more than falling down, as Ben Melech
observes, and therefore it is said, yea, they worship.
3. HENRY, “He exposes the folly of those who made idols and then prayed to them, Isa_46:6,
Isa_46:7. (1.) They were at great charge upon their idols and spared no cost to fit them for their
purpose: They lavish gold out of the bag; no little will serve, and they do not care how much
goes, though they pinch their families and weaken their estates by it. How does the profuseness
of idolaters shame the niggardliness of many who call themselves God's servants but are for a
religion that will cost them nothing! Some lavish gold out of the bag to make an idol of it in the
house, while others hoard up gold in the bag to make an idol of it in the heart; for covetousness
is idolatry, as dangerous, though not as scandalous, as the other. They weigh silver in the
balance, either to be the matter of their idol (for even those that were most sottish had so much
sense as to think that God should be served with the best they had, the best they could possibly
afford; those that represented him by a calf made it a golden one) or to pay the workmen's
wages. The service of sin often proves very expensive. (2.) They were in great care about their
idols and took no little pains about them (Isa_46:7): They bear him upon their own shoulders,
and do not hire porters to do it; they carry him, and set him in his place, more like a dead
corpse than a living God. They set him on a pedestal, and he stands. They take a great deal of
pains to fasten him, and from his place he shall not remove, that they may know where to find
him, though at the same time they know he can neither move a hand nor stir a step to do them
any kindness. (3.) After all, they paid great respect to their idols, though they were but the works
of their own hands and the creatures of their own fancies. When the goldsmith has made it that
which they please to call a god they fall down, yea, they worship it. If they magnified
themselves too much in pretending to make a god, as if they would atone for that, they vilified
themselves as much in prostrating themselves to a god that they knew the original of. And, if
they were deceived by the custom of their country in making such gods as these, they did no less
deceive themselves when they cried unto them, though they knew they could not answer them,
could not understand what they said to them, nor so much as reply Yea, or No, much less could
they save them out of their trouble. Now shall any that have some knowledge of, and interest in,
the true and living God, thus make fools of themselves?
4. JAMISON, “(Isa_40:19, Isa_40:20; Isa_41:7.) They lavish gold out of their purses and spare
no expense for their idol. Their profuseness shames the niggardliness of professors who worship
God with what cost them nothing. Sin is always a costly service.

32. 5. K&D, “The negative answer to this question is the direct result of what precedes, but a still
further proof is given in Isa_46:6, Isa_46:7. “They who pour gold out of the bag, and weigh
silver with the balance, hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, that they may fall down, yea,
throw themselves down. They lift it up, carry it away upon their shoulder, and set it down in
its place: there it stands; from its place it does not move: men also cry to it, but it does not
answer; it saves no one out of distress.” There is no necessity for assuming that ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ָ ַ‫ה‬ is used in
the place of the finite verb, as Hitzig imagines, or as equivalent to ‫ים‬ ִ‫ל‬ָ‫ז‬ ֵ‫,הם‬ as Rosenmüller and
Gesenius suppose; but up to ‫רוּ‬ ְⅴ ְ‫שׂ‬ִ‫י‬ the whole is subject, and therefore ‫ּלוּ‬‫ק‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ִ‫י‬ is the point at which
the change into the finite verb occurs (Ges. §131, 2). The point in hazzalı̄m is not the extravagant
expenditure, as Ewald thinks, but the mean origin of the god, which commences with the
pouring out of gold from a purse (zul = zalal, to shake, to pour out). Qaneh is the lever of the
scales (κανών). The metal weighed out is given to a goldsmith, who plates the idol with the gold,
and makes the ornaments for it of silver. When it is finished, they lift it up, or shoulder it (‫הוּ‬ ֻ‫א‬ ָ ִ‫י‬
with a distinctive Great Telisha), carry it home, and set it down in the place which it is to have
under it (‫יו‬ ָ ְ‫ח‬ ַ ). There it stands firm, immoveable, and also deaf and dumb, hearing no one,
answering no one, and helping no one. The subject to ‫ק‬ ַ‫ע‬ ְ‫צ‬ִ‫י‬ is any ‫ק‬ ֵ‫ּע‬‫צ‬. The first admonition closes
here. The gods who are carried fall without being able to save themselves, whereas Israel's God
carries and saves His people; He, the Incomparable, more especially in contrast with the lifeless
puppets of idols.
6. KRETZMANN, “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.
7. CALVIN, “6.Lavishing gold out of bags. The Prophet had formerly said this, and he now repeats it,
in order to fix this doctrine more and more deeply on the hearts of men; for superstition has struck its
roots so deeply in their hearts, that it cannot be torn out, unless the Lord entirely change our nature.
Whatever we have heard about this madness quickly passes out of our minds; for we always carry about
some seed of superstition, and there is nothing to which we are more prone than to fall into it. He says,
therefore, that one person supplies the materials for manufacturing idols, and another gives them a
shape; and that in this way it may be said that there are two fathers of such gods, that is, the rich man
who lavishes out the gold or silver, and the workman who adds the shape and makes the idol. Thus he
makes an open exposure of the madness of these who seek a deity in their purses and in the hand of
their workmen; for what means so sudden a change, that they bow down before the metal, as soon as it
has assumed a different shape, and a shape, too, which has been regulated by their own will or caprice?
for it is exactly such a god as they have been pleased to manufacture at their own expense.
They even adore. The particle ‫,אף‬ (aph,) even, heightens the description of this madness; for there might
perhaps be some room for repentance, if one who had been overtaken by a sudden mistake adored
some false god; but these men obstinately persevere in their error. This word therefore draws attention

33. more strongly to that obstinacy, and shews that they are altogether blinded. Excessively foolish, as I have
said, is this stupidity, when men adore a god which they have made with their own hands.
7 They lift it to their shoulders and carry it;
they set it up in its place, and there it stands.
From that spot it cannot move.
Even though someone cries out to it, it cannot answer;
it cannot save them from their troubles.
1.BARNES, “They bear him upon the shoulder - They carry the idol which they have
made on their shoulder to the temple, or place where it is to be fixed. This circumstance, with
the others, is doubtless introduced to show how ridiculous and absurd it was to offer divine
homage to a god whom they could thus carry about on the shoulder.
And set him in his place - Fix the idol on its basis or pedestal, in its proper niche, or place
in the temple. The whole design of this verse is to contrast the idol with Yahweh. Yahweh is
uncreated and eternal; the idol, on the contrary, is made by human beings, is borne about, is
fixed in its place, has no power to move, remains there until it is taken down, and has no ability
either to hear or save those who worship it.
2. CLARKE, “They bear him upon the shoulder - and set him in his place - This is
the way in which the Hindoos carry their gods; and indeed so exact a picture is this of the
idolatrous procession of this people, that the prophet might almost be supposed to have been
sitting among the Hindoos when he delivered this prophecy. - Ward’S Customs.
Pindar has treated with a just and very elegant ridicule the work of the statuary even in
comparison with his own poetry, from this circumstance of its being fixed to a certain station.
“The friends of Pytheas,” says the Scholiast, “came to the poet, desiring him to write an ode on
his victory. Pindar demanded three drachms, (minae, I suppose it should be), for the ode. No,
say they, we can have a brazen statue for that money, which will be better than a poem.
However, changing their minds afterwards, they came and offered him what he had demanded.”
This gave him the hint of the following ingenious esordium of his ode: -

34. Ουκ ανδριαντοποιος ειµ’
ᆦστ’ ελινυσσοντα µ’ εργαζε-
σθαι αγαλµατ’ επ’ αυτας βαθµιδος
ᅡσταοτ. Αλλ’ επι πασας
ᆍλκαδος εν τ’ ακατሩ γλυκει’ αοιδα
Στειχ’ απ’ Αιγινας διαγγελ-
lois’ ᆇτι Λαµπωνος ᆓιος
Πυθεας ευρυσθενης
Νικᇽ Νεµειοις παγκρατιου στεφανον.
Nem. v.
Thus elegantly translated by Mr. Francis in a note to Hor. Carm. 4:2. 19.
“It is not mine with forming hand
To bid a lifeless image stand
For ever on its base:
But fly, my verses, and proclaim
To distant realms, with deathless fame,
That Pytheas conquered in the rapid race.”
Jeremiah, Jer_10:3-5, seems to be indebted to Isaiah for most of the following passage: -
“The practices of the people are altogether vanity:
For they cut down a tree from the forest;
The work of the artificer’s hand with the axe;
With silver and with gold it is adorned;
With nails and with hammers it is fastened, that it may not totter.
Like the palm-tree they stand stiff, and cannot speak;
They are carried about, for they cannot go:
Fear them not, for they cannot do harm;
Neither is it in them to do good.”
3. GILL, “They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him,.... That is, the idol; men
carry him upon their shoulders in procession, and expose him to the view and veneration of the
people, just as the host is carried in procession by the Papists; or the idol being made, the
workman or his men lift it up, for it cannot lift up itself, and take it upon their shoulders, and
carry it home to the proprietor:
and set him in his place; in his house, if an household god: or in the temple, church, or place
of public worship, if designed for that:
or cause him to rest under him (p), or "in his place"; under the roof of his house or temple;
a jeer upon him, as if he was weary of his long journey, though carried. Here again the idols are

35. distinguished from the true God, and he from them; they are on men's shoulders, and set in a
certain place, but he carries all his people, and is not limited to, or included in any place:
and he standeth, and from his place he shall not remove; the idol being set in his place
stands fast, being nailed; he stands upright as a palm tree, and can never stir from the place
where he is, to help any of his worshippers, in whatsoever distress they may be; nor can he get
out of the way of any danger to which he may be exposed; if the temple or house, in which he is,
is on fire, or overflowed with water, or broke into by thieves, he cannot move out of his place,
and escape the danger; a fine deity to be worshipped indeed! see Isa_44:13.
Yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer; as Baal's priests and worshippers
cried to him, but no voice was heard, nor answer returned, 1Ki_18:26 for though they have ears,
they hear not, and mouths, yet they speak not, Psa_115:5.
nor save him out of his trouble; that is, the idol cannot save the idolatrous worshipper out
of his distress, which has caused him to cry unto him; see Isa_45:20.
4. pulpit, “They bear him upon the shoulder (see the comment on Isa_45:20). Here, however, it is not
the carrying in procession that is spoken of, but the conveyance of the imago by the workman from his
own workshop to the temple where it is to be set up. The carrying of heavy burdens upon the shoulder is
mentioned by Herodotus (2.35), and frequently represented on ancient monuments. From his place shall
he net remove; i.e. he (the god) will have no power of moving an inch from the spot on which he is set up.
There he will stand motionless, till some one comes and pushes him or pulls him from his place.
5. JAMISON, “cry ... can ... not ... save — (Isa_45:20, with which contrast Isa_45:19).
6. KRETZMANN, “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.
7. CALVIN, “7.They shall carry them on the shoulder. The picture is still more heightened by the
description contained in this verse; for, since the idols have no feeling of any kind, they who fly to them to
ask assistance must be not only very stupid but very obstinate.
8 “Remember this, keep it in mind,

36. take it to heart, you rebels.
1.BARNES, “Remember this - Bear in mind what is now said of the manner in which idols
are made. This is addressed, doubtless, to the Jews, and is designed to keep them from idolatry.
And show yourselves men - Act as men; throw away the childish trifles of idolaters. The
word used here (‫התאשׁשׁוּ‬ hithe
'oshashu' occurs nowhere else in the Bible. It is according to
Gesenius, derived from ‫אישׁ‬ 'ı ysh, “a man,” and means to act “as a man.” A similar word is used
in 1Co_16:13 (ᅊνδρίζεσθε andrizesthe, from ᅊνήρ aner, a man), and is correctly rendered there,
‘quit you like men.’ This Greek word often occurs in the Septuagint. It is used as a translation of
‫אמץ‬ 'amats, in Jos_1:6-7, Jos_1:9, Jos_1:18; 1Ch_28:20; 2Ch_32:7; Neh_2:1; of ‫גדל‬ gadal in
Rth_1:12; of ‫חזק‬ chazaq, in Deu_31:6-7, Deu_31:23; Jos_10:25; 2Ki_2:12; 2Ki_12:8; 1Ch_28:20,
and in several other places. Jerome renders the Hebrew word here, ‘Be confounded;’ the
Septuagint, Στενάξατε Stenachate) - ‘Groan;’ the Syriac, ‘Consider,’ or understand. The meaning
is, that they were to act as became people - not as children; as became those endowed with an
immortal mind, and not as the brutes. So Kimchi renders it: ‘Be men, and not brutes, which
neither consider nor understand.’
O ye transgressors - Ye who have violated the laws of God by the worship of idols. In the
time of Manasseh, the Israelites were much addicted to idolatry, and probably this is to be
regarded as addressed to them, and as designed to recall them from it to the worship of the true
God.
2. CLARKE, “Show yourselves men - ‫התאששו‬ hithoshashu. This word is rather of doubtful
derivation and signification. It occurs only in this place: and some of the ancient interpreters
seem to have had something different in their copies. The Vulgate read ‫התבששו‬ hithbosheshu, take
shame to yourselves; the Syriac ‫התבוננו‬ hithbonenu, consider with yourselves; the Septuagint στεν
αξετε· perhaps ‫התאבלו‬ hithabbelu, groan or mourn, within yourselves. Several MSS. read ‫התאוששו‬
hithosheshu, but without any help to the sense.
3. GILL, “Remember this,.... Or "these things", as the Syriac version, concerning the matter
of which, and the manner in which idols are made; their impotency to move themselves, and
their inability to help their votaries, and the difference between them and the true God:
and show yourselves men; and not brutes, as the makers and worshippers of images are, or
show themselves as if they were; who unmanly themselves, and act contrary to the natural
reason of mankind: or "be ye strong" (q); so the Targum and Jarchi; fortify yourselves against all
temptations to idolatry, and against all the arguments and persuasions of idolaters; or "burn ye"

37. (r) or "be ye inflamed", so Rabenu Hal and Joseph Kimchi; that is, blush and be ashamed at
such sottishness and stupidity, as men when they are ashamed look as if their faces were
inflamed; so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "be ye confounded" (s); or the sense is, be
fervent in spirit, be fired (t) with zeal for God and his glory, and with indignation against such
gross idolatry:
bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors; of the law of God, in this instance of idolatry;
meaning either the Babylonians, or rather the Jews, who had been drawn in by them to
idolatrous practices; calling upon them to return to their senses; to use and exercise their
reason; to recollect and reconsider things, and observe and repent of the folly and wickedness
they had been guilty of.
4. HENRY, “He puts it to themselves, and their own reason, let that judge in the case
(Isa_46:8): “Remember this, that has been often told you, what senseless helpless things idols
are, and show yourselves men - men and not brutes, men and not babes. Act with reason; act
with resolution; act for your own interest. Do a wise thing; do a brave thing; and scorn to
disparage your own judgment as you do when you worship idols.” Note, Sinners would become
saints if they would but show themselves men, if they would but support the dignity of their
nature and use aright its powers and capacities. “Many things you have been reminded of; bring
them again to mind, recall them into you memories, and revolve them there. O! you
transgressors, consider your ways; remember whence you have fallen, and repent, and so
recover yourselves.”
5. JAMISON, “show yourselves men — Renounce the childishness of idolatry as shown in
what precedes (1Co_14:20; 1Co_16:13; Eph_4:14). In order to be manly we must be godly; for
man was made “in the image of God,” and only rises to his true dignity when joined to God;
virtue is derived from the Latin vir, “a man.”
bring ... to mind — rather, “lay it to heart.”
transgressors — addressed to the idolaters among the Jews.
6. K&D 8-11, “The second admonition is addressed to those who would imitate the heathen.
“Remember this, and become firm, take it to heart, ye rebellious ones! Remember the
beginning from the olden time, that I am God, and none else: Deity, and absolutely none like
me: proclaiming the issue from the beginning, and from ancient times what has not yet taken
place, saying, My counsel shall stand, and all my good pleasure I carry out: calling a bird of
prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a distant land: not only have I spoken, I also
bring it; I have purposed it, I also execute it.” The object to which “this” points back is the
nothingness of idols and idolatry. The persons addressed are the ‫ם‬ִ‫עי‬ ְ‫פוֹשׁ‬ (those apostatizing), but,
as ‫שׁוּ‬ ָ‫ּשׁ‬‫א‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫ה‬ shows, whether it mean ᅊνδιρίζεσθε or κραταιοሞσθε (1Co_16:13), such as have not yet
actually carried out their rebellion or apostasy, but waver between Jehovahism and heathenism,
and are inclined to the latter. ‫התאשׁשׁו‬ is hardly a denom. hithpalel of ‫שׁ‬ִ‫אי‬ in the sense of “man
yourselves,” since ‫ישׁ‬ ִ‫,א‬ whether it signifies a husband or a social being, or like ‫נוֹשׁ‬ ֶ‫,א‬ a frail or
mortal being, is at any rate equivalent to ‫שׁ‬ְ‫נ‬ ִ‫,א‬ and therefore never shows the modification u. ‫שׁ‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ፎ
(‫ה‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ፎ) signifies to be firm, strong, compact; in the piel (rabb.), to be well-grounded; nithpael, to

38. be fortified, established; here hithpoel, “show yourselves firm” (Targ., Jer.: fundamini ne rursum
subitus idololatriae vos turbo subvertat). That they may strengthen themselves in faith and
fidelity, they are referred to the history of their nation; ‫ּנוֹת‬‫שׁ‬‫א‬ ִ‫ר‬ are not prophecies given at an
earlier time - a meaning which the priora only acquire in such a connection as Isa_43:9 - but
former occurrences. They are to pass before their minds the earlier history, and indeed “from
the olden time.” “Remember:” zikhru is connected with the accusative of the object of
remembrance, and ‫י‬ ִⅴ points to its result. An earnest and thoughtful study of history would show
them that Jehovah alone was El, the absolutely Mighty One, and 'Elohı̄m, the Being who united
in Himself all divine majesty by which reverence was evoked. The participles in Isa_46:10,
Isa_46:11 are attached to the “I” of ‫י‬ִ‫מוֹנ‬ ָⅴ. It is Jehovah, the Incomparable, who has now, as at
other times from the very commencement of the new turn in history, predicted the issue of
which it would lead, and miqqedem, i.e., long before, predicted things that have not yet occurred,
and which therefore lit outside the sphere of human combination - another passage like
Isa_41:26; Isa_45:21, etc., in which what is predicted in these prophecies lays claim to the
character of a prediction of long standing, and not of one merely uttered a few years before. The
‫,ראשׁית‬ in which the ‫ראשׁנות‬ are already in progress (Isa_42:9), is to be regarded as the prophet's
ideal present; for Jehovah not only foretells before the appearance of Cyrus what is to be
expected of him, but declares that His determination must be realized, that He will bring to pass
everything upon which His will is set, and summons the man upon the stage of history as the
instrument of its accomplishment, so that He knew Cyrus before he himself had either
consciousness or being (Isa_45:4-5). The east is Persis (Isa_41:2); and the distant land, the
northern part of Media (as in Isa_13:5). Cyrus is called an eagle, or, strictly speaking, a bird of
prey (‛ayit),
(Note: The resemblance to ᅊετός (αᅶετός) is merely accidental. This name for the eagle is
traceable, like avid, to a root va, to move with the swiftness of the wind. This was shown by
Passow, compare Kuhn's Zeitschrift, i. 29, where we also find at 10, 126 another but less
probable derivation from a root i, to go (compare eva, a course).)
just as in Jer_49:22 and Eze_17:3 Nebuchadnezzar is called a nesher. According to Cyrop. vii. 1,
4, the campaign of Cyrus was ᅊετᆵς χρυσοሞς ᅚπᆳ δόρατος µακροሞ ᅊνατεταµένος. Instead of ‫תוֹ‬ ָ‫צ‬ ַ‫ע‬ ‫שׁ‬ִ‫,אי‬
the keri reads more clearly, though quite unnecessarily, (ִ‫י‬ ָ‫ת‬ ַ‫צ‬ ֲ‫ע‬ ‫שׁ‬ִ‫אי‬ (see e.g., Isa_44:26). The
correlate ‫ף‬ፍ (Isa_46:11), which is only attached to the second verb the second time, affirms that
Jehovah does not only the one, but the other also. His word is made by Him into a deed, His
idea into a reality. ‫ר‬ ַ‫צ‬ָ‫י‬ is a word used particularly by Isaiah, to denote the ideal preformation of
the future in the mind of God (cf., Isa_22:11; Isa_37:26). The feminine suffixes refer in a neuter
sense to the theme of the prophecy - the overthrow of idolatrous Babel, upon which Cyrus comes
down like an eagle, in the strength of Jehovah. So far we have the nota bene for those who are
inclined to apostasy. They are to lay to heart the nothingness of the heathen gods, and, on the
other hand, the self-manifestation of Jehovah from the olden time, that is to say, of the One God
who is now foretelling and carrying out the destruction of the imperial city through the eagle
from the east.

39. 7. PULPIT, “Manliness in relation to religion.
"Remember this, and show yourselves men." The prophet calls on the people of God to show themselves
to be men, either by exercising their powers of recollection and reason in remembering the facts and
arguments he has adduced, or by taking appropriate, manly action in the recollection and realization of
these convincing and constraining reasons. Religion is a manly thing in both these aspects. So far from
its being the childish or effeminate thing which its enemies have been pleased to call it, it is a sphere of
thought and of action in which the very highest and noblest attributes of our humanity have fullest scope.
I. AS A SPHERE OF HUMAN THOUGHT.
1. It is the most elevated. All objects of creation are worthy of regard, and the study of them is full of
recompense. But they differ in the degree of their worthiness; there is an ascending scale, and they
culminate in the Divine. The noblest study of mankind is God his nature, his character, his will, his
kingdom.
2. It is the most obligatory. Men, as men, should consider that which most claims their attention, should
dwell on those themes which most demand their thought and care. And these are found in Divine
blessings, Divine dealings, Divine messages, Divine beauties and excellences. We are never doing
anything more worthy of our manhood than when we are recalling and realizing what God is, what he has
done, what he has been to our race and to ourselves, what sovereign and supreme claims he has on our
reverence and love.
II. As A SPHERE OF HUMAN ACTION. If there be anything which can be said to be manlier than patient
and earnest thought on the highest themes, it is:
1. Deliberate choice of the wisest and best course—the determination, at all costs and spite of all
inducements, to take that course which commends itself to our judgment as the right and the wise one.
This is exactly what men do when they surrender themselves to the will of God, to the service of Jesus
Christ.
2. Resolute and persistent pursuit of it. Where does manliness find nobler illustrations than in the
persistent worship of God under cruel persecution, the immovable adherence to sacred conviction under
the wearying and worrying assaults of worldly and frivolous associates, the steadfast endeavour to extend
the kingdom of righteousness and to raise the condition of the degraded, notwithstanding all the
discouragements that await the Christian workman?—C.
God's call to exercise right reason.
"Show yourselves men." This is the language of irony. Worshippers of idols should have the courage of
their convictions. They should not be such children as to confound the spiritual God with dumb, senseless
idols, who can neither counsel nor save. "Remember this, that has often been told you, what senseless,
helpless things idols are, and show yourselves men—men, and not brutes; men, and not babes. Act with
reason, act with resolution, act for your own interest. Do a wise thing, do a brave thing, and scorn to
disparage your own judgment, as you do when you worship idols" (Matthew Henry). The point presented
for consideration is—that God is served by the diligent and faithful use of our faculties, and not by
crushing them.

40. I. GOD IS BEST SERVED BY MAN AT HIS BEST. A very curious perversion of St. Paul's glorying in his
infirmities is the notion, which prevails in some quarters, that the more ignorant, weak, and foolish we are,
the better we can serve God's purposes. It is the universal truth that God works out his best purposes
through the consecration of man's best and most cultured powers to his service. It is only the exception of
Divine grace that God is pleased sometimes to use man's feebleness. Sometimes, indeed, it is so, that
"out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God perfects praise;" and his so doing efficiently persuades us
of the absolute sovereignty of Divine grace; but the normal law is that God shall be served by the best
culture and the wisest use of just those powers and faculties which he has himself given us. Let babes be
babes, and honour God with infant songs. Since we are men, it is the best-cultured and most fully
matured manhood that we must lay upon his altar. When reproached by a mere sentimentalist that "God
had no need of his learning," the cultured divine very wisely as well as smartly replied, "And he has as
little need of your ignorance." We must be in every way the best possible for God, and this includes
our mental best.
II. MAN AT HIS BEST IS BUT A SERVANT OF GOD. This conviction will keep him in his place,
whatsoever his attainments may be. It is the constantly observed fact that fulness of learning and a
genuine humility go together hand-in-hand. It is a "little knowledge" that puffeth up, a "little culture" that
nourishes self-will. The things we have in the household and family life, for daily use, need not be
chipped, ugly, or inefficient things; they may be in the best shapes, and may be artistic in appearance,
pleasant to the eye, without losing their practical usefulness. So we can be the truest, wisest, most
cultured, most beautiful men and women, and yet keep in perfect simplicity the humility and the joy of
our service.—R.T.
8. CALVIN, “8.Remember this. This verse may be explained in two ways, either that the Lord
addresses the Jews, or that he addresses the Gentiles. Men who otherwise are not well instructed in the
Law are led into mistakes, because they extinguish that knowledge which God kindles in their hearts; for
there is no person who has not some seed of religion implanted in him by nature, but men choke it by
their unbelief, or corrupt and debase it by their inventions. On this account we might extend it to the whole
human race. But I am more disposed to adopt a different opinion, which is also demanded by the context;
for the Prophet will soon afterwards add what does not apply to any but the Jews, whom he
calls transgressors, because, having been vanquished by a slight temptation, they revolted from the true
God, as if captivity ought to have obliterated from their hearts all the benefits which he had bestowed on
them. Since, therefore, they had shaken off the true religion, he sharply rebukes their ingratitude in having
been so easily led away to sinful inventions.
Return to the heart. (218) By giving them this injunction he means that they are not of sound
understanding. Others render it, “” This is feeble and inappropriate, and, a little before, he had bid them
remember, and will immediately repeat the same thing. Now, therefore, he rather bids them “ to the
heart,” because forgetfulness of God’ benefits was a sort of madness.
Blush. Others render it, “ a manly part,” and derive the word from ‫איש‬ (ish.) Others derive it
from ‫,אשיש‬ (ashish,) which means “ foundation;” as if he had said, “ courage, do not despair of my
assistance.” But I rather agree with Jerome, who derives it from ‫,אש‬ (esh;) for it is more appropriate, when
their disgrace has been exposed, to “ ashamed” than to assume manly courage; though I leave it to every
person to form his own judgment. He therefore means that they blush for their madness, ingratitude, and
wickedness, so as to return to God. (219)

41. (218) “ (it) again to mind.” — Eng. Ver.
(219) “ verb ‫התאששו‬ (hithshteshu) is a ἅπαξ λεγόµενον, and admits of several different explanations.
Joseph Kimchi derived it from ‫אש‬ (esh,) fire, and explained it to mean, ‘ inflamed or reddened,’ that is, ‘’
So the Vulgate, confundamini (be confounded.) The Targum and Jarchi understand it to mean, ‘ or
strengthen yourselves,’ and connect it with ‫,אששים‬ (ashishim,) foundations. (Isa_16:7.) Bochart derives it
from ‫,איש‬ (ish,) a man, and identifies it with the ἀνδρίζεσθε, of 1Co_16:13.” —Alexander.
9 Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
1.BARNES, “Remember the former things ... - Bear in mind the repeated and constant
proofs that have been given that Yahweh is the true God - the proofs derived from the prediction
of future events, and from the frequent interpositions of his providence in your behalf as a
nation.
For I am God - (See the notes at Isa_44:6).
2. BI 9-11, “The purposes of God
I.
When we come to look at THE PURPOSES OF GOD, we must not be misled by words. The word
“purpose,” with us, supposes several things, which have nothing to do with the same term when
applied to God. There is, with God, no ignorance previously to the formation of His purposes; no
new light thrown on circumstances, out of which His purpose arises; no period in His past
eternity, when His purposes were not formed; no consulting either with Himself or with others,
with regard to their formation. Perhaps you may be ready to say, if we are to look at the purpose
of God in this way, it is not a purpose at all, in the sense in which we use the term. And it
certainly is not, as you will perceive. We accommodate human language to the infinite
characteristics of the Divine nature; but we must do it with caution, and must be careful what
measure of idea we associate with our common terms, when we are applying them to God. If
not, we shall be deceived in the conclusions we draw and the doctrines we believe. If the purpose

42. of God is to be viewed as it really is, we take it to be simply this: God’s foreknowledge of
everything that is to come to pass, together with the operation of His influence upon that
foreknowledge, in connection with those things. His foreknowledge had no beginning; His
resolution, as to what He was to do, could have no beginning. From the moment He foresaw, He
resolved or purposed. Such appears to be the meaning of the word “purpose” as applied to God.
If it should be said, “This is a view of ‘purpose’ altogether foreign from the view we take of it,” we
grant it. But why? Because the nature of God is altogether foreign from ours. Ours is a finite and
limited nature in itself; His is infinite and unlimited.
II. THE APPLICATION OF GOD’S PURPOSE IN REFERENCE TO MAN.
1. Are we to regard the purposes of God as involving in them the charge of originating
immorality and sin? Did God purpose that man should be a sinner? If His purposes are to be
taken and explained, as we take and explain our own, then this was the case. If He foresaw
that man would fall before He made him, yet had not determined whether He should permit
this or not, and then permitted it, we should say that the purpose of God implies in it a part
at least of the moral guilt of His creature. But He had formed no such purpose as this. He
foresaw that man would fall; He foresaw the provision that was to be made for his case; but
there was no period in eternity when He had not foreseen this, and hence no purpose arose
out of the mere incident of the liability of man to fall. He was left to the working of those
powers which God gave him: and with the working of those powers the purposes of God
never interfered.
2. But if we look not merely to the connection between the purpose of God and the origin of
evil, but also to the connection between the purpose of God and the free agency of man, we
have another field opened to us, in examining which we must very carefully recollect the
views that we have taken of the Divine purpose. When God created man, He gave him
powers and faculties which He intended to commit to his trust, and which He aid commit to
his trust. He foresaw what use he would make of them, and how far he would abuse them;
but He did not destroy them, in order that they might not be abused. There is an entire
freedom in the operation of our faculties, so far as our own consciousness is concerned; are
they not also exhibited to us as free, in the Word of God? Are we not addressed upon the
subject of our shortcomings and our sins, as if we were held strictly free by the God that
addresses us? Are we not hailed to return from our iniquity, as if we were free to return? Are
we not invited to “lay hold on the hope set before us in the Gospel,” as if we were free to
accept the invitation? Let us look next at the view that men take of our capacity; and we shall
find, that except when they are induced to quarrel with the Word of God, except when they
are induced to throw difficulties in the way of their own salvation, they too act upon the
principle that man is free.
3. But let us look at the purpose of God in reference to man’s responsibility. If man were not
free, on what ground could he be held to be responsible? and does any one doubt of his
responsibility to God? The responsibility of man arises out of the very nature of his faculties,
just like the proof of his free agency in the use of them. And we find the Word of God
harmonising with the view, which our own faculties would alone give us, in holding the
responsibility of man. Then what has the purpose of God to do with our responsibility? It
merely foresees the consequences of that responsibility, and purposes to leave the man to
those consequences. Reject and neglect the “great salvation,” and you cannot be saved: such
is the announced purpose of God. Accept that salvation, and “he that believeth shall be
saved”: such is also the announced purpose of God. His purpose, therefore, in all these
respects, is nothing more than His foreknowledge, connected with His determination
respecting what He foresees; both the foreknowledge and the determination how He shall
act in reference to what He foresees, being eternal.

43. 4. Regarding the purpose of God in this light, we may take yet another view of its
application, namely, its connection with the Gospel of Christ. With your belief, or your
unbelief, the purpose of God has nothing to do, except so far as that purpose determines to
reward the one, and to punish the other.
(1) Remembering these things, which of you would be disposed, in the face of the nature
of God, in the face of his own consciousness, in the face of the settled opinions of all men
and all ages, in the face of the Word of God itself, to say that he is not held responsible
for the exercise of the powers which God has given him? In everything but religion, we
act upon this consciousness of freedom and responsibility.
(2) Let us associate our own salvation with the determined purpose of God, that they
who come to Him shall “in no wise be cast out,” and that he that believeth shall and must
be saved. (J. Burner.)
A fourfold aspect of the Infinite
I. AS THE ONE AND ONLY GOD. “I am God, and there is none else.” The Bible establishes the
doctrine of monotheism. This doctrine—
1. Agrees with our spiritual nature. The whole soul, both in its searches after truth and love,
one for the intellect, the other for the heart, struggles after unity; it turns to the centre, as the
needle to the pole, as the flower to the sun
2. Explains the harmony of the universe. How is it that all things in their constitution fit into
each other, and in their operations are so harmonious and uniform? The whole machine
shows in all its parts and revolutions that it had but one Architect.
3. Makes clear human obligation. If there be but one God, His will should be the supreme
law of all our activities; His being should be the centre of our sympathies and love. Were
there more gods than one we might be distracted on the question as to who should have our
love and obedience.
II. AS ACQUAINTED WITH ALL THE FUTURITIES OF THE UNIVERSE. “Declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done.” There is one mind
in the universe, and only one, whose infinite glance comprehended all, swept over all space, and
over all durations. Though such a fact baffles all our attempts at comprehension, its denial
would undeify God. The whole history of the universe, from beginning to end, was in His mind
before it took active shapes, or concrete embodiments. Hence—
(1) He can have no surprises.
(2) He can have no disappointments.
III. AS PURPOSING NOTING THAT CAN BY ANY POSSIBILITY FAIL. “My counsel shall
stand,” &c.
1. God has a concern for His pleasure. The apostle calls His pleasure a “good pleasure.” What
is it? The pleasure of disinterested benevolence.
2. All God’s purposes point to His pleasure. Whatever will make His creatures happy is His
pleasure; and the whole universe is constructed on this principle.
3. None of God’s purposes shall fail. “My purposes shall stand.” The special purpose here
referred to was terribly realised (Dan_5:30). Our purposes are constantly being broken; the
vast shore of human history is crowded with the wrecks of broken purposes. Our purposes
are broken sometimes—

44. (1) Through the lack of power to carry them out.
(2) Through the lack of time to carry them out. God has ample power and ample time to
carry out His purposes.
IV. AS HAVING ABSOLUTE POWER TO SUBORDINATE EVEN UNGODLY MEN TO HIS
SERVICE. “Calling a ravenous bird,” &c. In God’s great moral kingdom He has two classes of
servants.
(1) Those who serve Him by their will—all holy angels and sainted men.
(2) Those who serve Him against their will—wicked men and devils.
Conclusion—What an ennobling view of our God! He is One: let us centre our souls on Him; He
knows all futurities, let us trust His providence. He will fulfil all His purposes, let us acquiesce in
His arrangements. He renders even His moral enemies subservient to His own will, therefore let
us “trust in Him who liveth for ever.” (Homilist.)
Cyrus, a ravenous bird
Cyrus is compared to a “ravenous bird” on account of the celerity of his movements (Isa_41:3),
just asNebuchadnezzar had been likened to an eagle (Jer_49:22;Eze_17:3). (Prof. J. Skinner, D.
D.)
3. GILL, “Remember the former things of old,.... The things that were from the
beginning, or the ancient things done by the Lord, whether as the effects of power, wisdom, and
goodness, or in wrath, or in mercy; such as the creation of the heavens, and the earth, and all
things in them; the destruction of the old world, and of Sodom and Gomorrah; the bringing of
Israel out of Egypt through the Red sea and wilderness, to Canaan's land, and all the wondrous
things then done for them; which are so many proofs of the true deity of the God of Israel, in
opposition to the idols of the Gentiles:
for I am God, and there is none else; as he must needs be what did the above things:
I am God, and there is none like me; for greatness or goodness, or that has done the like
things; not one of the gods of the Gentiles.
4. HENRY, “He again produces incontestable proofs that he is God, that he and none besides
is so (Isa_46:9): I am God, and there is none like me. This is that which we have need to be
reminded of again and again; for proof of it he refers, (1.) To the sacred history: “Remember the
former things of old, what the God of Israel did for his people in their beginnings, whether he
did not that for them which no one else could, and which the false gods did not, nor could do, for
their worshippers. Remember those things, and you will own that I am God and there is none
else.” This is a good reason why we should give glory to him as a nonsuch, and why we should
not give that glory to any other which is due to him alone, Exo_15:11. (2.) To the sacred
prophecy. He is God alone, for it is he only that declares the end from the beginning, Isa_46:10.
From the beginning of time he declared the end of time, and end of all things. Enoch
prophesied, Behold, the Lord comes. From the beginning of a nation he declares what the end of
it will be. He told Israel what should befal them in the latter days, what their end should be, and

45. wished they were so wise as to consider it, Deu_32:20, Deu_32:20. From the beginning of an
event he declares what the end of it will be. Known unto God are all his works, and, when he
pleases, he makes them known. Further than prophecy guides us it is impossible for us to find
out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end, Ecc_3:11. He declares from
ancient times the things that are not yet done. Many scripture prophecies which were delivered
long ago are not yet accomplished; but the accomplishment of some in the mean time is an
earnest of the accomplishment of the rest in due time. By this it appears that he is God, and
none else; it is he, and none besides, that can say, and make his words good, “My counsel shall
stand, and all the powers of hell and earth cannot control or disannul it nor all their policies
correct or countermine it.” As God's operations are all according to his counsels, so his counsels
shall all be fulfilled in his operations, and none of his measures shall be broken, none of his
designs shall miscarry. This yields abundant satisfaction to those who have bound up all their
comforts in God's counsels, that his counsel shall undoubtedly stand; and, if we are brought to
this, that whatever pleases God pleases us, nothing can contribute more to make us easy than to
be assured of this, that God will do all his pleasure, Psa_135:6. The accomplishment of this
particular prophecy, which relates to the elevation of Cyrus and his agency in the deliverance of
God's people out of their captivity, is mentioned for the confirmation of this truth, that the Lord
is God and there is none else; and this is a thing which shall shortly come to pass, Isa_46:11.
God by his counsel calls a ravenous bird from the east, a bird of prey, Cyrus, who (they say) had
a nose like the beak of a hawk or eagle, to which some think this alludes, or (as others say) to the
eagle which was his standard, as it was afterwards that of the Romans, to which there is
supposed to be a reference, Mat_24:28. Cyrus came from the east at God's call: for God is Lord
of hosts and of those that have hosts at command. And, if God give him a call, he will give him
success. He is the man that shall execute God's counsel, though he comes from a far country
and knows nothing of the matter. Note, Even those that know not, and mind not, God's revealed
will, are made use of to fulfil the counsels of his secret will, which shall all be punctually
accomplished in their season by what hand he pleases. That which is here added, to ratify this
particular prediction, may abundantly show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his
counsel: “I have spoken of it by my servants the prophets, and what I have spoken is just the
same with what I have purposed.” For, though God has many things in his purposes which are
not in his prophecies, he has nothing in his prophecies but what are in his purposes. And he will
do it, for he will never change his mind; he will bring it to pass, for it is not in the power of any
creature to control him. Observe with what majesty he says it, as one having authority: I have
spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. Dictum, factum - no sooner said than done. I have
purposed it, and he does not say, “I will take care it shall be done,” but, “I will do it.” Heaven
and earth shall pass away sooner than one tittle of the word of God.
II.
5. JAMISON, “ravenous bird — Cyrus so called on account of the rapidity of his marches
from the distant regions of Persia to pounce on his prey (see on Isa_41:2; see on Isa_41:25; see
on Jer_49:22; see on Eze_17:3). The standard of Cyrus, too, was a golden eagle on a spear (see
the heathen historian, Xenophon, 7, where almost the same word is used, aetos, as here, ayit).
executeth my counsel — (Isa_44:28; Isa_45:13). Babylon represents, mystically, the
apostate faction: the destruction of its idols symbolizes the future general extirpation of all
idolatry and unbelief.
purposed ... also do it — (Isa_43:13).

46. 6. CALVIN, “9.Remember the former things. This is an explanation of the preceding statement; for he
expresses more fully what he formerly meant, that is, that God hath testified of himself by sufficiently
numerous proofs, and hath shewed what is his nature and greatness; and that not merely for two or three
days, or for a few years, butat all times; for he had continued his benefits, and had incessantly bestowed
his grace upon them. Hence he infers that the manifestations of his divinity, being so clear, ought to
prevent them from giving their hearts to another.
That I am God. In this passage the particle ‫כי‬ (ki) does not signify for, but that, and introduces a clause
which explains what goes before. Besides, as we have formerly explained, God wishes not only that he
may be acknowledged, but that he alone may be acknowledged; and therefore he wishes to be separated
from all the gods which men have made for themselves, that we may fix our whole attention on him;
because, if he admitted any companion, his throne would fall or shake; for either there is one God or
there is none at all.
10 I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
1.BARNES, “Declaring the end from the beginning - Foretelling accurately the course
of future events. This is an argument to which God often appeals in proof that he is the only true
God (see Isa_41:22-23; Isa_43:12; Isa_44:26).
My counsel shall stand - My purpose, my design, my will. The phrase ‘shall stand’ means
that it shall be stable, settled, fixed, established. This proves:
1. That God has a purpose or plan in regard to human affairs. If he had not, he could not
predict future events, since a contingent event cannot be foreknown and predicted; that is, it
cannot be foretold that an event shall certainly occur in one way, when by the very supposition
of its being contingent it may happen either that way, or some other way, or not at all.
2. That God’s plan will not be frustrated. He has power enough to secure the execution of his
designs, and he will exert that power in order that all his plans may be accomplished. We may
observe, also, that it is a matter of unspeakable joy that God has a plan, and that it will be
executed. For
(1) If there were no plan in relation to human things, the mind could find no rest. If there was
no evidence that One Mind presided over human affairs; that an infinitely wise plan had been

47. formed, and that all things had been adjusted so as best to secure the ultimate accomplishment
of that plan, everything would have the appearance of chaos, and the mind must be filled with
doubts and distractions. But our anxieties vanish in regard to the apparent irregularities and
disorders of the universe, when we feel that all things are under the direction of an Infinite
Mind, and will be made to accomplish his plans, and further his great designs.
(2) If his plans were not accomplished, there would be occasion of equal doubt and dismay. If
there was any power that could defeat the purposes of God; if there was any stubbornness of
matter, or any inflexible perverseness in the nature of mind; if there were any unexpected and
unforeseen extraneous causes that could interpose to thwart his plans, then the mind must be
full of agitation and distress. But the moment it can fasten on the conviction that God has
formed a plan that embraces all things, and that all things which occur will be in some way made
tributary to that plan, that moment the mind can be calm in resignation to his holy will.
And I will do all my pleasure - I will accomplish all my wish, or effect all my desire. The
word rendered here ‘pleasure’ (‫חפץ‬ chepets) means properly delight or pleasure 1Sa_15:22;
Psa_1:2; Psa_16:3; Ecc_5:4; Ecc_12:10; then desire, wish, will Job_31:16; and then business,
cause, affairs Isa_53:10. Here it means that God would accomplish everything which was to him
an object of desire; everything which he wished, or willed. And why should he not? Who has
power to hinder or prevent him Rom_9:19? And why should not we rejoice that he will do all
that is pleasing to him? What better evidence have we that it is desirable that anything should be
done, than that it is agreeable, or pleasing to God? What better security can we have that it is
right, than that he wills it? What more substantial and permanent ground of rejoicing is there in
regard to anything, than that it is such as God prefers, loves, and wills?
2. PULPIT, “Declaring the end from the beginning; i.e. "possessed of the very highest prophetic power,
able to declare from the very beginnings of history its ultimate issues"
(see Gen_3:15; Gen_16:12; Gen_21:18, etc.). My counsel; rather, my purpose, or my
plan (comp. Psa_33:11; Job_23:13; and supra, Isa_14:24).
3. GILL, “Declaring the end from the beginning,.... The end of the Jewish state, both as a
church, and a commonwealth, from the first settlement of it in the times of Moses, and by him,
Deu_32:29. The end of the world, and all things in it, as early as the times of Enoch, the seventh
from Adam, Jud_1:14. The end and issue of every event, at least of many very remarkable and
momentous ones, before they came to pass; and particularly things relating to Christ, the
beginning and end; the fulfilling end of the moral law for righteousness; the scope and design of
the ceremonial law, to which that tended, and in which it issued; as well as the end of the whole
Scripture, of the prophecies and promises of it: and this end was declared very early, and spoken
of by all the prophets that were from the beginning of the world; and which is a full proof of the
omniscience of God, and so of his true deity, Luk_1:70.
And from the ancient times the things that are not yet done; that were not at this time
done, though they are since: such as the captivity of the Jews, and their return from it; also the
incarnation of Christ, his obedience and sufferings, and the glory that should follow; his
resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God; the work of redemption by him;
the effusion of the Spirit; the spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles, and their conversion; and
others which are now not yet done; as the conversion of the Jews in the latter day, and the
bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles; the glory of the church in those times as to knowledge,
peace, purity, power, and authority; the destruction of antichrist; and the second coming of the

48. Messiah; all which have been declared from ancient times; and as the former have been
accomplished, there is reason to believe the latter will:
saying, my counsel shall stand; the purposes and decrees of God, which are within himself,
wisely formed by him, eternal and not frustrable; and which shall stand, or be accomplished,
being the counsels of him who is all wise, all knowing, all powerful, unchangeable, true, and
faithful; whether they respect the providence of God in relation to the world in general, and the
government of it, or to particular persons, and their affairs, from the time of their birth to their
death; or whether they respect his grace and goodness in the salvation of men; such as his
purpose according to election, the covenant of his grace, redemption by Christ, the effectual
calling, and eternal glorification; all which, as they are according to the will and counsel of God;
stand firm and sure, and shall have their full accomplishment; see Psa_33:11.
And I will do all my pleasure; as he has done in creation, and does in providence, so he has
done, can do, and does in grace, in predestination and redemption, and in the effectual calling.
And particularly this may refer to the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus, a type of Christ, and
deliverance by him, as follows:
4. HENRY, “He is God alone, for it is he only that declares the end from the beginning,
Isa_46:10. From the beginning of time he declared the end of time, and end of all things. Enoch
prophesied, Behold, the Lord comes. From the beginning of a nation he declares what the end of
it will be. He told Israel what should befal them in the latter days, what their end should be, and
wished they were so wise as to consider it, Deu_32:20, Deu_32:20. From the beginning of an
event he declares what the end of it will be. Known unto God are all his works, and, when he
pleases, he makes them known. Further than prophecy guides us it is impossible for us to find
out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end, Ecc_3:11. He declares from
ancient times the things that are not yet done. Many scripture prophecies which were delivered
long ago are not yet accomplished; but the accomplishment of some in the mean time is an
earnest of the accomplishment of the rest in due time. By this it appears that he is God, and
none else; it is he, and none besides, that can say, and make his words good, “My counsel shall
stand, and all the powers of hell and earth cannot control or disannul it nor all their policies
correct or countermine it.” As God's operations are all according to his counsels, so his counsels
shall all be fulfilled in his operations, and none of his measures shall be broken, none of his
designs shall miscarry. This yields abundant satisfaction to those who have bound up all their
comforts in God's counsels, that his counsel shall undoubtedly stand; and, if we are brought to
this, that whatever pleases God pleases us, nothing can contribute more to make us easy than to
be assured of this, that God will do all his pleasure, Psa_135:6. The accomplishment of this
particular prophecy, which relates to the elevation of Cyrus and his agency in the deliverance of
God's people out of their captivity, is mentioned for the confirmation of this truth, that the Lord
is God and there is none else; and this is a thing which shall shortly come to pass, Isa_46:11.
5. JAMISON, “(Isa_45:21; Isa_41:22, Isa_41:23; Isa_44:26).
yet — not in the Hebrew. Translate, “What had not been done” [Horsley].
do all my pleasure — (Isa_53:10; Rom_9:19).
6. PULPIT, “The goodness of God's pleasure.

49. "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." An anthropopathic expression. Care is necessary
in transferring human sentiments and feelings to God. Words may come to be applied in such a way to
men that they cannot be wisely used for God. A man's "pleasure" has come to stand for his mere "self-
willedness," his unreasoning and often unreasonable "wishes." A man's "pleasure" is simply the thing that
he "likes." In such senses we cannot properly apply such a word to God. In the text, the word "pleasure"
is associated with the word "counsel," and the suggestion made is that the counsels of the infinite wisdom
and goodness are such that God can find a personal pleasure in carrying them out. Just as he looked
upon all his creation-work, called it good, and found pleasure in it, so he looks upon all the operations of
his providence, for nations and individuals, and finds pleasure in watching them as they bear towards the
final issue of universal good. It may be shown that every being finds its pleasure "after its kind," according
to its nature; and we ought to have the utmost satisfaction in God's getting his pleasure because of what
we know of him. His pleasure must be like him, worthy of him; and that is enough.
I. WHAT IS PLEASANT TO GOD MUST BE RIGHT. For men that is true which is expressed in the
proverb, "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." Man finds his pleasure in that
which is doubtful, and even in that which is wrong. But we have the most perfect confidence that God
finds no pleasure in anything that is not through and through right. If he is well pleased, then we are sure
that the thing is right. Indeed, so fixed is this relation between "God" and "right," that, for us, the right has
come to be simply "God's will."
II. WHAT IS PLEASANT TO GOD MUST BE KIND. That is, it must have taken all due consideration of
the well-being and the wishes of others; and it must involve a going out of God, as it were, beyond
himself, to live in the feelings of others. The essence of pleasure is unselfish concern for others. And God
may do all his "pleasure," because he proposes only that which secures our highest welfare. What may
be spoken of as the highest pleasure God can know? We are assured that he has "no pleasure at all in
the death of the wicked, but that he turn from his evil way and live." God's supreme pleasure is found
in redeeming; in all that this most suggestive and comprehensive word involves. "The Lord taketh
pleasure in them that tear him, in those that hope in his mercy."—R.T.
7. BI, “Declaring the end from the beginning
God as a Worker
God is not a passive existent, resting idly in immensity.
He is essentially, incessantly, everlastingly active. He “fainteth not, neither is weary.” He has done
wonderful things, and He will do wonders more. The text suggests four things in relation to God, as a
Worker in the future.
I. HE KNOWS ALL THAT IS TO BE DONE IN THE FUTURE. “Declaring the end from the beginning.”
When we embark in an enterprise, difficulties start up in our path that never entered into our calculation
and baffle us. Not so with God. When He began the work of redemption, He saw all the infidelities,
superstitions, depravities, devils, and hells that would oppose Him.

50. II. HE HAS REVEALED ALL THAT IS TO BE DONE IN THE FUTURE. “Declaring,” &c. Applying the
words to redemption, He has declared in many a grand prophetic passage what will be its end, sweeping
all wrongs and woes, all sins and sufferings, from this planet, and filling it with Christly virtues and
heavenly blessedness. Yes, and more, peopling heaven with untold millions of souls. His declaration of
“the end” is very explicit, very frequent, very encouraging.
III. HE WILL EXECUTE ALL THAT IS TO BE DONE IN THE FUTURE. “My counsel shall stand.” He will
employ thousands of instrumentalities and ministries, but He will do it. They will work by His direction, and
by His power. He will do it gradually and efficiently.
IV. HE HAS A PLEASURE IN ALL THAT IS TO BE DONE IN THE FUTURE. “I will do all My pleasure.”
To re-create and re-paradise lost souls is His pleasure. He rejoices over repentant sinners. (Homilist.)
My counsel shall stand
God’s standing counsel
To form a plan and then to alter it, or to have a fixed plan and to fail in it, is one of the many sad
imperfections of humanity. In the first ease, some new light springs up which was not evident before. In
the second some difficulty arises, which, as a mountain, hinders the carrying out of the plan. But who can
suppose any of this in God--a Being of Infinite Power? (Isa_40:15-17.) With Him thereis no difficulty. He is
a Being of Infinite wisdom. Nothing escapes Him. The past, the present, the future are an everlasting
now. Unchanged are His resolves, as His nature is unchangeable
(Psa_33:11; Pro_19:21; Pro_21:30; Act_5:39; Heb_6:17).
I. THE DECLARATION.
1. We see this exemplified in the works of nature. Such is the regularity of all that the Great Mechanist is
too usually lost sight of in the very machinery of His hands, as if it worked by its own power, regulated
itself.
2. Still more distinctly do we see this declaration in the works of Providence. Wheel runs within wheel, but
He is in every wheel, whatever its direction, whatever its movement. He is directly or indirectly in it. Look
at Cyrus. Look at the history of Joseph. Look at Jesus Himself. (Act_2:23; Act_3:18; Act_4:26-28.)
3. But if He does all His pleasure in His works of creation and providence, how much more in the greater,
infinitely greater displays of Himself in His grace, which is His glory! (2Ti_1:9.)

51. II. THE GROUND OF SUCH DECLARATION. “I will do all My pleasure.” It is His own work. True, He
works by means, and most commonly by human instrumentality. But it is in all respects His own work.
1. The subject has an awful look upon any who have been trifling. “My counsel shall stand, and I will do
all My pleasure. Look at the fall. Look at the sin and sinfulness of this polluted world. These are but a
fearful comment on “My counsel shall stand.” “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
“By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” Look at the flood. Look at Babylon. Look at
Jerusalem.
2. The subject is most encouraging to every returning sinner.
3. This is most consolatory to the tried saint.
4. Beware of any abuse of this great and glorious truth. If God’s counsel standeth fast, and He does all
His pleasure, it is that God who delights in human instrumentality. (J. H. Evans, M.A.)
8. CALVIN, “10.Declaring from the beginning. He now explains more fully in what manner he wishes
the Jews to remember the past time, namely, that they were taught by constant predictions, as far as was
necessary for their advantage. But from this preface he immediately makes a transition to the hope of
deliverance.
My counsel shall stand. We ought not to wonder that he repeats this so frequently, because it is very hard
to persuade men of the truth of it. The people were not only slow to believe, but even obstinate; and
therefore he reminds them that they had learned long ago, and not on one occasion only, how safe it is to
place their confidence in God. Nor is it only his foreknowledge that is here extolled by him, but he says
that he has testified by his prophets what he had decreed. Even the prophecies would have no certainty
or solidity, if the same God who declares that this or that thing shall happen had not the events
themselves in his power. At the same time, he states that he speaks according to truth and brings forward
his decrees in all the prophecies, that the Jews may not hesitate to place a firm reliance, as soon as the
prophets have spoken. But as I have already explained these subjects more largely, I now give nothing
more than a brief view of them.
11 From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;

52. what I have planned, that I will do.
1.BARNES, “Calling a ravenous bird from the east - There can be no doubt that Cyrus
is intended here (see the notes at Isa_41:2, Isa_41:25). The east here means Persia. The word
rendered ‘ravenous bird’ (‫עיט‬ ‛ayitʖ) is rendered ‘fowl’ in Job_28:7; ‘bird’ or ‘birds’ in Jer_12:9;
‘fowls’ in Gen_15:11; Isa_18:6; and ‘ravenous birds’ in Eze_39:4. It does not occur elsewhere in
the Bible. It is used here as an emblem of a warlike king, and the emblem may either denote the
rapidity of his movements - moving with the flight of an eagle; or it may denote the devastation
which he would spread - an emblem in either sense especially applicable to Cyrus. It is not
uncommon in the Bible to compare a warlike prince to an eagle Jer_49:22; Eze_17:3; and the
idea here is, probably, that Cyrus would come with great power and velocity upon nations, like
the king of birds, and would pounce suddenly and unexpectedly upon his prey. Perhaps also
there may be here allusion to the standard or banner of Cyrus. Xenophon (Cyrop. vii.) says that
it was a golden eagle affixed to a long spear; and it is well remarked by Lowth, that Xenophon
has used the very word which the prophet uses here, as near as could be, expressing it in Greek
letters. The word of the prophet is ‫עיט‬ ‛ayitʖ; the Greek word used by Xenophon is ᅊετᆵς aetos.
The Chaldee has, however, given a different rendering to this passage: ‘I, who say that I will
gather my captivity from the east, and will lead publicly like a swift bird from a distant land the
sons of Abraham, my friend.’
The man that executeth my counsel - Margin, as Hebrew, ‘Of my counsel.’ It may either
mean the man whom he had designated by his counsel; or it may mean the man who should
execute his purpose.
Yea, I have spoken - He spake it by the prophets; and the idea is, that all that he had
spoken should be certainly accomplished.
2. CLARKE, “Calling a ravenous bird from the east “Calling from the east the
eagle” - A very proper emblem for Cyrus, as in other respects, so particularly because the
ensign of Cyrus was a golden eagle, ΑΕΤΟΣ χρυσους, the very word ‫עיט‬ ayit, which the prophet
uses here, expressed as near as may be in Greek letters. Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. 7 sub. init. Kimchi
says his father understood this, not of Cyrus, but of the Messiah.
From a far country “From a land far distant” - Two MSS. add the conjunction ‫ו‬ vau,
‫ומארץ‬ umeerets; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.
3. GILL, “Calling a ravenous bird from the east,.... Or "a flying fowl", or "swift winged
bird" (u); for the word used does not so much denote rapaciousness as swiftness; which well
agrees with Cyrus, who is here meant, and not Abraham, as Jarchi, nor Nebuchadnezzar, as
others; and who was always swift in all his expeditions, and always recommended celerity and
dispatch of business to his soldiers and others, as Xenophon (w) often observes; and very
remarkable is that speech of Tigranes to him, in which he tells him (x), that he so far exceeded

53. the king of Armenia in swiftness, that he came upon him with a great army, from a far country,
before he could get his army together, which was just by him. And very observable are the words
of Cyrus himself, who was desirous of being a thorough horseman, that he might seem to be ανθ
ρωπος πτηνος, "a winged" or "flying man" (y) So the Targum here renders it, a swift bird. Aben
Ezra, who interprets it of Cyrus, says he is so called, as if he flew to do the will of God; and
Kimchi observes of Cyrus, that he has this name because he came swiftly, and in haste, as a bird
that flies: and it is no unusual thing for a mighty monarch, or a general, marching with his army,
to be compared to a flying bird, particularly an eagle, Jer_48:40 and may be the bird intended
here, which well suits with Cyrus, who had, as Plutarch (z) reports, an aquiline nose; hence men
that have such noses, among the Persians, are highly esteemed: and Xenophon (a) says, that the
standard of Cyrus was a golden eagle upon the top of a high spear, and which is retained by the
kings of Persia. Cyrus is said to be called from the east, because, as Kimchi observes, his country
lay to the east of Babylon:
the man that executeth my counsel from afar country; as Persia was from Babylon,
Assyria and other provinces lying between; but though he lived in a far country, and knew
nothing of the affairs of the people of God in Babylon, or what work he was to do, yet God called
him, and brought him to do his will, which he was ignorant of: so God sometimes puts into the
hearts of men to fulfil his will, which they are strangers to, Rev_17:17. It is in the Hebrew text,
"the man of my counsel" (b); not with whom the Lord consulted, for none are of his counsel in
this sense; but whom in his counsels, decrees, and purposes, he appointed to such service, and
whom he made use of as an instrument to do his pleasure; see Isa_44:8.
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass: I have purposed, I will also do it;
the counsel of the Lord, concerning the deliverance of his people from Babylon, by the hand of
Cyrus; this he had purposed in his own breast, had spoken of in prophecy, and would certainly
perform. R. Joseph Kimchi interprets this verse of the Messiah, and so does Jerom, of whom, no
doubt, Cyrus was a type; and what is here said agrees with him: he may be compared to a flying
bird for his swiftness in coming at the appointed time; he came from the east, as the rising sun
of righteousness; he was the man of God's counsel in the highest sense, and came, being called,
to execute it; the work of redemption was according to the eternal purpose of God, and spoke of
by all the holy prophets, and now accomplished; and his righteousness and salvation are made
mention of in the following verses.
4. HENRY, “The accomplishment of this particular prophecy, which relates to the elevation of
Cyrus and his agency in the deliverance of God's people out of their captivity, is mentioned for
the confirmation of this truth, that the Lord is God and there is none else; and this is a thing
which shall shortly come to pass, Isa_46:11. God by his counsel calls a ravenous bird from the
east, a bird of prey, Cyrus, who (they say) had a nose like the beak of a hawk or eagle, to which
some think this alludes, or (as others say) to the eagle which was his standard, as it was
afterwards that of the Romans, to which there is supposed to be a reference, Mat_24:28. Cyrus
came from the east at God's call: for God is Lord of hosts and of those that have hosts at
command. And, if God give him a call, he will give him success. He is the man that shall execute
God's counsel, though he comes from a far country and knows nothing of the matter. Note,
Even those that know not, and mind not, God's revealed will, are made use of to fulfil the
counsels of his secret will, which shall all be punctually accomplished in their season by what

54. hand he pleases. That which is here added, to ratify this particular prediction, may abundantly
show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel: “I have spoken of it by my servants
the prophets, and what I have spoken is just the same with what I have purposed.” For, though
God has many things in his purposes which are not in his prophecies, he has nothing in his
prophecies but what are in his purposes. And he will do it, for he will never change his mind; he
will bring it to pass, for it is not in the power of any creature to control him. Observe with what
majesty he says it, as one having authority: I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. Dictum,
factum - no sooner said than done. I have purposed it, and he does not say, “I will take care it
shall be done,” but, “I will do it.” Heaven and earth shall pass away sooner than one tittle of the
word of God.
5. JAMISON, “ravenous bird — Cyrus so called on account of the rapidity of his marches
from the distant regions of Persia to pounce on his prey (see on Isa_41:2; see on Isa_41:25; see
on Jer_49:22; see on Eze_17:3). The standard of Cyrus, too, was a golden eagle on a spear (see
the heathen historian, Xenophon, 7, where almost the same word is used, aetos, as here, ayit).
executeth my counsel — (Isa_44:28; Isa_45:13). Babylon represents, mystically, the
apostate faction: the destruction of its idols symbolizes the future general extirpation of all
idolatry and unbelief.
purposed ... also do it — (Isa_43:13).
6. PULPIT, “Calling a ravenous bird; rather, a bird of prey. The imagery is quite natural, and exactly
parallel to that by which Nebuchadnezzar is termed "an eagle," both by Jeremiah (Jer_44:22) and Ezekiel
(Eze_17:3). There is no need to suppose any allusion to the fact, if fact it be, that the Persians from the
time of Cyrus had for a standard a golden eagle, with wings outspread, on the top of a spear-shaft (Xen;
'Cyrop.,' 7.1, § 4; 'Anab.,' 1.10, § 12). From the east (comp. Isa_41:2, Isa_41:25). Both Persia and
Susiana, which were the primary seats of the power of Cyrus, lay to the east of Babylon, the latter due
east, the former somewhat to the south-east. Even Media might, according to Hebrew usage, be
described as east, though lying almost due north-east.
7. CALVIN, “11.Calling a bird or a thought from the east. After having spoken of God’ foreknowledge
and power, the Prophet applies to his own purpose the general statement which he had made. He
intended to comfort the Jews, and to shew that they were not led into captivity in such a manner as to
leave no hope of deliverance; and therefore he adds a specific instance, and promises that Cyrus shall
come, though it appeared to be incredible.
The word ‫עיט‬ (ait,) which I have translated thought, is translated by the greater part of interpreters a
bird; and this is the true signification of the word. But as we may learn from Dan_2:14, that it sometimes
denotes counsel, (for the insertion of a letter in the noun ‫עיט‬ is customary among the Chaldee writers,) I
choose rather to follow this interpretation, which is approved by some Hebrew writers. Yet it is possible
that he alludes to a bird, (220) as if he had said that his purpose would be sudden; and I do not deny that
he alludes to the swiftness of the approach of Cyrus.
The man of my counsel. When he again calls Cyrus “ man of his counsel,” this is a repetition very
frequent among Hebrew writers; and hence also it is evident that, in the former clause, the
noun ‫עית‬ (ait) is put for “” or “” Now, he calls him “ man of counsel,” because he executes the Lord’

55. decree.
Yet if it be thought preferable to translate it bird, I do not debate about it. The metaphor is beautiful; for
the approach of Cyrus was so sudden and unexpected, that he seemed to fly like “ bird.” He suddenly
invaded Babylon and took it by storm, even when the Babylonians imagined that every entrance was
closed against him. It may also be said, if this interpretation of the word be approved, that Isaiah alludes
to auguries, to which the Babylonians were greatly addicted. Accustomed to practice judicial astrology,
they observed the flight and chattering of birds, and looked upon this as a certain knowledge of future
events; but the Lord threatens that he will send “ bird” which they had not foreseen. But I prefer the former
exposition, namely, that he alludes to the swiftness of Cyrus, and declares that no roads shall be shut
against him, and that no fortresses shall hinder him from entering immediately into Babylon.
When he says from the east, this not only relates to the certainty of the promise, but is intended to inform
us that no distance or length of time can retard the work of God; and accordingly, in the second clause, it
is added by way of explanation, from a distant country Let us learn from this what is the purpose to which
we ought to apply all that we read in Scripture concerning the foreknowledge and power of God; for those
statements are not made in order to keep us in suspense, but that we may apply them to our own use.
Now, he makes an implied contrast between the counsel of God and our thoughts; for he delivers his
people in such a manner that the reason of the deliverance cannot be comprehended by men. Thus,
although that which God promises appears to be incredible, yet he says that he will easily open up a way,
that we may not measure by our capacity his unsearchable counsels.
I have thought. Others render itI have formed; but in this passage it appears to be more appropriate to
view ‫יצר‬ (yatzar) as signifying “ think.” He confirms what he formerly said, that this hath been determined
by him, and therefore shall be steadfast and unalterable.
I have spoken, and will accomplish. These words mean, that he has predicted nothing in vain, and that
this prediction, which he has commanded to be published, ought to be regarded as fulfilled. To establish
our faith in himself was the object of the one clause, and in the other he connects his thoughts with the
preached word. This ought to be carefully observed; for we are distracted by a variety of thoughts, and we
doubt if God has spoken sincerely, and suspect that he is like us, that is, that he is a hypocrite or
dissembler. But he declares that nothing proceeds from him but what he formerly determined in his
counsel. (221) so that the preaching of the word is nothing else than a sure testimony of his hidden
counsel, which he commands to be revealed to us. As soon therefore as the Lord hath spoken any word,
we ought; to be certain of its accomplishment.
(220) “ a bird of prey is here meant the Eagle; for the Greek word ἀετός is derived from ‫עיט‬ (ait.) There
can be no doubt that he means Cyrus, who, in a former passage, (Isa_41:25,) is said to have been called
by Jehovah ‘ the East,’ that is, from Persia, which lay to the east of Judea. In other passages also, (as
in Jer_49:22;Eze_17:3,) kings and princes are compared to eagles, because, in the opinion of the
ancients, the eagle is the king of birds. Thus also Cyrus is represented under the image of a ‘ of prey,’
chiefly on account of the astonishing swiftness with which he rode in his expeditions from Persia into very
distant countries, and on account of the violence with which he flew upon his enemies and seized them
as his prey. There may also be an allusion to the circumstance, that Cyrus ordered a golden eagle, with
outstretched wings, laid on a long spear, to be carried before him as his military standard; for so
Xenophon describes it. Ην δὲ αὐτῷ σηµεῖον ἀετὸς χρυσοῦς ἐπὶ δόρατος µακροῦ ἀνατεταµένος καὶ νῦν δὲ
τοῦτο ἔπι σηµεῖον τῳ Περσῶν βασιλεῖ διαµένει ‘ his standard was a golden eagle stretched on a long

56. spear, and even now this continues to be the standard of the king of Persia.’ (Xen. Cyrop. 7.)” —
Rosenmuller.
(221) “En son conseil.”
12 Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted,
you who are now far from my righteousness.
1.BARNES, “Hearken unto me - This is designed to call the attention of the skeptical and
unbelieving Jews to the important truth which he was delivering. Many among them might be
disposed to say that the fulfillment was delayed, and he therefore calls upon them to attend
particularly to his solemn declarations.
Ye stout-hearted - The phrase ‘stout-hearted’ would naturally, denote those who were bold
and courageous. But here it evidently means those whose hearts were strong against God; who
nerved themselves to resist and oppose his plans and government; who were stubborn and
rebellious.
2. CLARKE, “Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted - This is an address to the
Babylonians, stubbornly bent on the practice of injustice towards the Israelites.
3. GILL, “Hearken unto me, ye stout hearted,.... This is not an address to the Chaldeans,
as Kimchi and others think, who were merciless and cruel to the Jews, and far from doing that
which was right unto them, but oppressed them, and would not let them go; but to the Jews
themselves, at least to the wicked and profligate among them, who were always a stouthearted,
stiffnecked, and a rebellious people; and even those who made more presences to religion were
only self-righteous, and were far from true righteousness. The whole may be applied to all
persons destitute of the grace of God, professors or profane, who are stout or stubborn hearted;
have hard and impenitent hearts; proud and haughty in their hearts; proud of their wisdom,
power, and strength; stout in their hearts against God, as appears by their words and actions;
oppose themselves to the people of God, his word and ordinances; and some so daring as to
make a mock at sin, at religion, and a future state, and outbrave death itself; though when God

57. calls them to an account, as he sometimes does by his judgments here, and will at the last
judgment hereafter; or by the workings of his Spirit upon them, convincing them of sin,
righteousness, and judgment; their hearts fail, and they cannot be strong and endure; when his
word comes with power, and they hear it, and feel the energy of it, they are cut to the heart, and
their stout and proud spirits are brought down, and made to submit: even such
that are far from righteousness; as all men are in a state of nature, none are righteous, no,
not one, but are full of all unrighteousness; even those that are the most righteous and religious,
externally, are without a righteousness; they do not attain to one by the law of works; they go
about to establish their own, and do not submit to the righteousness of God, and so are far from
it: and indeed all God's elect, in a state of unregeneracy, are far from any knowledge of the
righteousness of Christ, they not being yet convinced of the need of it, and it having not yet been
revealed and applied unto them, and received by faith; now these are called upon to hear the
word externally, which coming with power, causes them to hear spiritually what follows:
4. HENRY, “For the conviction of those that daringly opposed the counsels of God assurance
is here given not only that they shall be accomplished, but that they shall be accomplished very
shortly, Isa_46:12, Isa_46:13.
1. This is addressed to the stout-hearted, that is, either, (1.) The proud and obstinate
Babylonians, that are far from righteousness, far from doing justice or showing mercy to those
they have power over, that say they will never let the oppressed go free, but will still detain them
in spite of their petitions or God's predictions, that are far from any thing of clemency or
compassion to the miserable. Or, (2.) The unhumbled Jews, that have been long under the
hammer, long in the furnace, but are not broken are not melted, that, like the unbelieving
murmuring Israelites in the wilderness, think themselves far from God's righteousness (that is,
from the performance of his promise, and his appearing to judge for them), and by their
distrusts set themselves at a yet further distance from it, and keep good things from themselves,
as their fathers, who could not enter into the land of promise because of unbelief. This is
applicable to the Jewish nation when they rejected the gospel of Christ; though they followed
after the law of righteousness, they attained not to righteousness, because they sought it not by
faith, Rom_9:31, Rom_9:32. They perished far from righteousness; and it was because they
were stout-hearted, Rom_10:3.
2. Now to them God says that, whatever they think, the one in presumption, the other in
despair, (1.) Salvation shall be certainly wrought for God's people. If men will not do them
justice, God will, and his righteousness shall effect that for them which men's righteousness
would not reach to. He will place salvation in Zion, that is, he will make Jerusalem a place of
safety and defence to all those who will plant themselves there; thence shall salvation go forth
for Israel his glory. God glories in his Israel; and he will be glorified in the salvation he designs
to work out for them; it shall redound greatly to his honour. This salvation shall be in Zion; for
thence the gospel shall take rise (Isa_2:3), thither the Redeemer comes (Isa_59:20,
Rom_11:26), and it is Zion's King that has salvation, Zec_9:9. (2.) It shall be very shortly
wrought. This is especially insisted on with those who thought it at a distance: “I bring near my
righteousness, nearer than you think of; perhaps it is nearest of all when your straits are greatest
and your enemies most injurious; it shall not be far off when there is occasion for it, Psa_85:9.
Behold, the Judge stands before the door. My salvation shall not tarry any longer than till it is
ripe and you are ready for it; and therefore, though it tarry, wait for it; wait patiently, for he
that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”

58. 5. JAMISON, “stout-hearted — stubborn in resisting God (Psa_76:5; Act_7:51).
far from righteousness — (Isa_59:9; Hab_2:4).
6. K&D, “A third admonition is addressed to the forts esprits in Isa_46:12, Isa_46:13.
“Hearken to me, ye strong-hearted, that are far from righteousness! I have brought my
righteousness near; it is not far off, and my salvation tarrieth not: and I give salvation in Zion,
my glory to Israel.” All that is called in Hellenic and Hellenistic νοሞς λόγος συνείδησις θυµός, is
comprehended in καρδία; and everything by which basar and nephesh are affected comes into the
light of consciousness in the heart (Psychol. p. 251). According to this biblico-psychological idea,
‫ב‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ית‬ ִ ፍ may signify either the courageous (Psa_76:6), or, as in this instance, the strong-minded;
but as a synonym of ‫ב‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ק‬ְ‫הז‬ ִ‫ס‬ (Eze_2:4) and ‫ב‬ ֵ‫ל‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫ק‬ (Eze_3:7), viz., in the sense of those who resist
the impressions of the work and grace of God in their consciousness of mental superiority to
anything of the kind, and not in the sense of those who have great mental endowments. These
are “far from righteousness” (tse
daqah), that is to say, they have despaired of the true, loving
fidelity of Jehovah, and have no wish for any further knowledge of it. Therefore they shall hear,
and possibly not without impression, that this loving fidelity is about to manifest itself, and
salvation is about to be realized. Jehovah has given salvation in Zion, that is to say, is giving it
even now, so that it will become once more the centre of the renovated nation, and impart its
glory to this, so that it may shine in the splendour bestowed upon it by its God. We have here the
side of light and love, turned towards us by the two-faced tse
daqah, as a parallel word to the
shu‛ah,
or salvation. With this admonition to the indifferent and careless, to whom the salvation of
which they have given up all hope is proclaimed as at the door, this prophecy is brought to a
close. In three distinct stages, commencing with “hearken,” “remember,” “hearken,” it has
unfolded the spiritual influences which the fact declared in Isa_46:1, Isa_46:2 ought to have
upon Israel, and resembles a pastoral sermon in its tone.
7. CHARLES SIMEON, “CHRIST THE SALVATION OF ISRAEL
Isa_46:12-13. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness: I bring near my
righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion, for
Israel my glory.
THEY who deny or doubt the existence of a Supreme Being, may discover his eternal power and
godhead by the works of creation, and ascertain his infinite superiority above all false gods, by the
numberless predictions which he has given by his prophets, and the never-failing accomplishment of
them in their appointed season. To this last criterion God himself refers idolaters in the chapter before us,
and challenges them to bring any of their false deities, who should be able to stand in competition with
him. To us, who acknowledge his unrivalled glory, there is one thing which displays, in a wonderful
manner, the transcendent riches of his grace; I mean, the freeness with which his offers of mercy are
made even to the most abandoned of mankind. This remark obviously avises from the words of our text;
and will be fully illustrated by considering,
I. The characters addressed—

59. The words, in their primary meaning, were intended to describe those who were unhumbled by the
judgments inflicted on them in the Babylonish captivity, and unaffected with his promises of deliverance
from it. As applied to us, they comprise two common characters:
1. Those who feel no remorse for their past sins—
[All must acknowledge that they have sinned against God, and that, as sinners, they ought to humble
themselves before him. But how many never call their past ways to remembrance, or say with
themselves, what have I done [Note: Jer_8:6.]! Their sins give them no uneasiness: instead of mourning
over their offences, they palliate them; and, instead of imploring mercy at God’s hands, they deny that
they have any need to deprecate his wrath and indignation. And must not such people be called “stout-
hearted?” If God himself complains of those who represent it as a vain thing to serve the Lord, that “their
words are stout against him [Note:Mal_3:13-14.],” surely the same complaint may justly be made against
those who practically declare his service to be a needless yoke, and an intolerable burthen.]
2. Those who are unconcerned about their eternal salvation—
[Many, alas! are as improvident about the future as they are unconcerned about the past. They will
profess indeed that heaven is a desirable portion; but they will never inquire seriously whether they be in
the way to attain it; nor ever exert themselves in earnest to secure it. If an empty wish, or a formal round
of duties, will suffice for the acquisition of it, they will be content to pay the price: but if they are to run as
in a race, and to fight as in a single combat, in order to have it awarded to them, they do not think it worth
the contest. What now must we say of these, but that they are “far from righteousness and salvation?”
Surely, if they be far froma concern about these things, much more must they be from the attainment of
them.]
When we reflect upon the characters here addressed, how shall we stand amazed at,
II. The address itself—
The prophet, in these words, foretold both the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, and
the coming of their Messiah to save the world. To sinners of our day the text declares,
1. That God has provided a Saviour for them—
[Christ is undoubtedly that “salvation whom God has placed in Zion,” and whom we are commanded to
call, “The Lord our righteousness.” Him has “God sent into the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself” — — — Hearken to this, ye stout-hearted: though ye have despised your God, your God has not
despised you; but has pitied your fallen state, and made provision for your restoration to happiness. Yes;
for the angels that fell, he instantly “prepared” a place of unutterable and everlasting torment
[Note: Mat_25:41.]: but for you he prepared a Saviour, even his only dear Son. And shall not this make
your obdurate hearts relent? Or will ye receive such stupendous grace in vain?]
2. That God now offers salvation to them—
[This salvation is nigh to all of us, and the tidings of it are now sounding in our ears. It is placed in this our
Zion as much as ever it was in Zion of old. Christ is now present in his ordinances according to his
promise; and will be so even to the end of the world. At this very hour he “proclaims liberty to the captives

60. and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” To you, even to you, ye stout-hearted, is “the word
of this salvation sent.” Your past iniquities shall be forgiven, if only you will humble yourselves before him.
Nor is this all: your God will not only restore you to his favour, but will “glory” over you with unutterable
joy. “You shall be even a crown of glory and a royal diadem in his hands [Note: Isa_62:3.].” Let not then
your hearts be yet hardened against him; but let his transcendent “goodness lead you to repentance.”]
Advice—
1. Endeavour to see your obduracy in its true colours—
[If you are free from gross sins, you think but little of an unhumbled and impenitent state. But what can be
worse than a seared conscience and a callous heart? What can be worse than to feel no sorrow or
contrition for your past offences, no desire to please your God, no anxiety to save your souls? Be assured
that such a state, with whatever name it may be glossed over, is hateful in the extreme: and that, if
continued in, it will prove as fatal as a course of open profligacy and profaneness.]
2. Fear lest God should give you up to final impenitence—
[The present address, which is made by God himself, shews clearly enough, that he “has no pleasure in
the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.” But he is a holy God;
nor will his Spirit “always strive with man.” He may be provoked at last to “swear in his wrath that you shall
never enter into his rest.” This he most assuredly does with respect to many, who “grieve his Spirit” till
they have altogether “quenched” his sacred motions. “To-day therefore, while it is called to-day, harden
not your hearts,” “lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.”]
3. Think what regret you will feel, when that salvation, which is now so near you, shall be removed to
an unapproachable distance—
[Of all the miseries that can afflict a soul in the future world, we cannot conceive any more distressing
than the thought of having had a Saviour provided for us, and salvation through him offered to us. No
words can express the sense which a self-ruined sinner will have of his folly, when he sees in one view
the mercies he has slighted and the judgments he has brought upon himself. Now he can be “far from
righteousness,” and glory in his shame: but then he will see that, which even courted his embraces here,
removed afar off indeed; so far, as to preclude a possibility of ever attaining the possession of it. The Lord
grant, that they who have hitherto slighted these overtures of mercy, may now embrace them with their
whole hearts!]
8. pulpit, “Isa_46:12, Isa_46:13
AN ADMONITION TO THE OBDURATE IN ISRAEL. God's mercy extends even to those who resist his
grace. They who have been hitherto stiff-necked and "far from righteousness," have a special warning
addressed to them, Salvation is drawing nigh; the deliverance of Israel is approaching; there is no time to
lose; will they not east in their lot with the true Israel, and take advantage of the deliverance when it
comes?
Isa_46:12

61. Ye stout-hearted (comp. Eze_2:6; Eze_3:7; and infra, Isa_48:4). The LXX. translate by σκληροκάρδιοι .
Stout-heartedness.
"Ye stout-hearted, that are far from righteousness." Ezekiel has other terms. "For they are impudent
children and stiff-hearted" (Eze_2:4); "For all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted"
(Eze_3:7). The term "stout-hearted" expresses stubborn and confirmed opposition, rebelliousness,
obduracy, a state of mind and heart that is beyond the influence of any gracious pleadings and
persuasions. And such "stout-heartedness" involves the man's own self-willed exclusion from the
"righteousness of God." The stout-hearted man gets far away from God, because he has no intentions of
obedience to him. The plea of the text is sent to those exiles who were slow to believe in their deliverance
through the agency of Cyrus; and it must be admitted that all the later information we have concerning
Cyrus helps us to understand how unlikely a person he was for the carrying out of Jehovah's purposes.
Not even yet have we sufficent information to permit our understanding the national circumstances and
political pressure which, humanly speaking, led to the restoration. The plea of the text is full of force for all
sinners who refuse to accept the offers of mercy and salvation which God has been pleased to make to
them. The "stout-hearted" can even refuse God's mercy in Christ Jesus. But the refusal is rebellion and
insult; and the stone that should be a foundation must prove a stone that falls and crushes. Matthew
Henry regards these "stout-hearted" as "the unhumbled Jews, that have been long under the hammer,
long in the furnace, but are not broken, are not melted; that, like the unbelieving, murmuring Israelites in
the wilderness, think themselves far from God's righteousness (that is, from the performance of his
promise, and his appearing to judge for them), and by their distrusts set themselves at a yet further
distance from it, and keep good things from themselves, as their fathers, who could not enter into the land
of promise because of unbelief." A study of this state and condition of mind and feeling may follow along
three lines.
I. STOUT-HEARTEDNESS AS A NATURAL DISPOSITION. There is a natural obstinacy, a self-willed
tendency to object and to resist, which parental training ought to correct, test it should get established as
a bad bias for life. Severe child-chastisements only can check this evil.
II. STOUT-HEARTEDNESS AS A PRODUCT OF CIRCUMSTANCES. Illustrate from the distressed
condition of exiles in Babylon, the long delay in Divine deliverance, etc. We can hardly wonder that some
should say, "Why should we wait for God any longer?"
III. STOUT-HEARTEDNESS AS A RESULT OF ACTS OF WILFULNESS. Nothing is more morally
injurious than for us to be successful in first transgressions and little sins, and so to become hardened
and proud in our hearts.—R.T.
9. BI, “A WRETCHED CONDITION.
1. Insensibility to the good. “Stout-hearted.” The word “stout-hearted” does not mean courageous,
intrepid, morally brave; it means hardness, obduracy, spiritual stubbornness. It represents a soul dead to
all that is spiritually true and good.
2. Alienation from the good. “Far from righteousness.” To be “far from righteousness” is to be far from all
that is noble, Godlike, and happy; it is to be in the kingdom of darkness, and in regions under the ban of

62. Heaven.
II. A GLORIOUS PROMISE. “I bring near My righteousness,” &c. “Righteousness and salvation” are in
morals convertible terms. The promise is, Divine deliverance to men in this wretched condition. This
deliverance God brings near to the sinner. “Near”--
1. In the Gospel of Christ.
2. In the ministry of the good.
3. In the suggestions of conscience.
4. In the spiritual influence of events.
III. AN URGENT DUTY. “Hearken unto Me.”
1. Earnestly. Withdraw thine ear from the din of worldliness, sinful thoughts, and carnal passions, and
open it to Me when I speak. Adjust yourself in a listening attitude.
2. Constantly. I am constantly speaking in nature, in conscience, in history, as well as in the Gospel. All
My voices are one in significance and aim. I am calling you to My “righteousness” and “salvation.”
3. Practically. What I say attend to. Don’t let My voice pass away in mere impressions. Act on My
counsels, obey My behests. (Homilist.)
God’s call to the unrighteous
1. The first thing on which we would fasten your attention is that God’s dealings with mankind have been
all of a character which may be called unexpected. We do not believe that any reason could have been
given why men should be redeemed, had the question been proposed to higher ranks of intelligence.
Nay, forasmuch as no provision had been made for the rescue of fallen angels, it could not have been
imagined that any would have been made for the rescue of fallen man; the conclusion must rather have
been that ruin followed inevitably on rebellion, and there could not be reconciliation where once there had
been offence. Even now that we know of the Mediator’s interference we can trace it to nothing but the
unmeasured love of God, and can give no account of the wondrous matter of our redemption save that so
it pleased Him “who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.”
2. We may be sure, that having summoned the stout-hearted to hearken, the words which immediately
follow are such as God knows to be specially adapted to the case of the stout-hearted, that is, to contain
the motives which are most likely to bring them to contrition and repentance. The nearness of salvation is
made an argument with the ungodly why they should turn from evil courses, just as preached the Baptist--
“Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

63. 3. God goes on to speak with more distinctness of His purposes of mercy “And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel My glory.” We may believe of this prophecy as of similar ones where Zion is mentioned,
that it refers originally to what Christ would accomplish at His first appearing in Judea, and delineates also
what He would effect at His Second Advent. This salvation God placed in Zion, for it was only by the
going up of the Mediator as a victim to the altar, by His ascending the Cross erected upon Calvary, that
the curse of the law was exhausted and the honour of the Divine attributes secured. “For Israel My glory.”
Wonderful words! I had thought that “the heavens declared Thy glory”; I read of the glory of the Lord like a
devouring fire abiding in Sinai; and when the sun and moon are withdrawn from the firmament, of the
New Jerusalem I am told that “the glory of God doth lighten, it.” In such cases, if I cannot define the glory,
I am at least dazzled by its shinnings, and there Is something of correspondence between what I know of
the nature of God and what I hear of His glory. But that man, fallen, sinful man should be His glory, the
mortal the glory of the immortal, the corruptible the glory of the incorruptible--in this is a mystery which
might seem too deep to be fathomed by our searchings, yet not a mystery while I have the Bible in my
hands and know what God “hath done for us men and for our salvation.” (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The ungodly world
I. THE UNHAPPY MORAL CONDITION OF THE WORLD.
1. A condition of moral stubbornness.
2. Of moral unrighteousness.
II. THE GLORIOUS REMEDIAL PROVISION OF HEAVEN. “I bring near,” &c.
1. Christ has brought righteousness very near to mankind. It is inculcated in His teaching, exemplified in
His life, honoured in His death.
2. Christ has brought salvation very near to mankind. It comes within the reach of all to whom His Gospel
is preached. “Say not in thine heart who shall ascend up into heaven,” &c.
III. THE URGENT SPIRITUAL DUTY OF MANKIND. “Hearken unto Me.” Why this attention?
1. It is only by faith that the remedial provision can be enjoyed.
2. It is only by attention that this faith can be attained. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God.” (Homilist.)

64. 10. CALVIN, “12.Hear me. He again rebukes the Israelites, because they could not place confidence
in God, or receive any consolation in adversity. That rebuke is indeed sharp and severe, but was well
deserved by those whose hearts were not soothed by any promise, or by any invitation, however
gracious, which God addressed to them.
We ought to observe the two epithets which he employs here, Hardened in heart and Far from
righteousness By these expressions he means that poor distressed persons shut the door against God’
assistance on account of their obstinacy; because by murmuring or fretting they shake off the fear of God,
and thus throw themselves into despair, so that they openly rage against God. He addresses the Jews,
who, though they were almost overwhelmed, yet were swelled with pride and insolence, and, having
thrown off the fear of God, rose to more and more outrageous madness; as frequently happens to many
persons in the present day, whom distresses and afflictions render more rebellious. Accordingly, they
refused to receive any medicine, any remedy for their distresses. If any one prefer to consider the
word righteousness to be put for “ assistance of God,” as in the following verse, let him enjoy his opinion,
which indeed is not inappropriate; because obstinate men, who refuse to believe the promises of God,
drive God away from them, and reject his grace; for they do not suffer God to confer benefits upon them,
though he offered to them his assistance.
13 I am bringing my righteousness near,
it is not far away;
and my salvation will not be delayed.
I will grant salvation to Zion,
my splendor to Israel.
1.BARNES, “I bring near my righteousness - The word ‘righteousness’ here evidently
denotes his truth; the fulfillment of his promises. His righteous and true character would be
manifested to them so plainly and clearly that they would be able no longer to doubt. It would
not be remote in time, or in place, but it would be so near that they could see it, and so plain that
they could no longer doubt or misunderstand it.
And my salvation shall not tarry - The people shall be delivered from their bondage at
the exact time which has been predicted.
I will place salvation in Zion - Zion or Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, and salvation shall
emanate from that as from a center to the whole world.

65. Israel my glory - The people whom he had chosen, and who reflected his glory. God’s honor
and glory on earth are seen in, and by the church, and he designs that the church shall be the
means of making his glory known among people. Or it may mean I will give my glory to Israel. I
will show to them my perfections, and will make their nation the place of the manifestations of
my glorious attributes.
2. PULPIT, “God's people are God's glory.
"For Israel my glory." He glories in them. He is glorified in them. He ought to be glorified in them. Some
read the clauses from which the text is taken so as to throw out a different meaning: "And I appoint in
Zion salvation, unto Israel (I give) my glory." God's glory is thus represented as connected with his
salvation and his righteousness. God's glory is his faithfulness and his redemption. As we have so often
the declaration of God's interest in Israel, his joy in her, and the honour he expects her to be to him, we
take the simpler thought suggested by the English Version, and suggest such a homily as may be
suitable for a week-night service or prayer-meeting. God's people are God's glory; they bring honour to
him, as we see—
I. WHAT HE DOES FOR THEM. Illustrate from God's moving away all obstacles, and constraining
unlikely agents to serve him in the restoring of the exiles to their loved city and country.
II. WHAT HE DOES IN THEM By the very delay of his promise, and by his gracious sanctifyings,
preparing them to get the very best moral and spiritual blessings out of their deliverance.
III. WHAT HE DOES WITH THEM. Making them a spectacle and a witness for himself, to their own age
and the surrounding nations; and making the marvel of their story a testimony to his faithfulness and
mercy to all ages, until the end of the world shall come.—R.T.
3. GILL, “I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off,.... Meaning either the
faithfulness of God, in fulfilling his promises; or the justice of God displayed, in redemption by
Christ; or Christ himself, God's righteous One, and the Lord our righteousness; or rather the
righteousness of Christ itself, which Jehovah the Father may call his, because he sent his Son to
work it out, approved of it, accepted it, and imputes it to his people, and justifies them by it; and
which was near to be wrought out by Christ, and revealed in the Gospel; and which is brought
near and applied by the Spirit of God to a sensible sinner, to a sinner convinced of the
insufficiency of his own righteousness, and of the suitableness and excellency of Christ's, and of
his need of it; and which is near in Christ, and in the Gospel, for faith to come at, at any time;
nor is it ever far off from the believer, to whom it is imputed, and on whom it is put:
and my salvation shall not tarry; either Christ, who is God's salvation, provided and
appointed by him, who was to come as a Saviour, and should not tarry; nor did he tarry beyond
the appointed time, Hab_2:3 or the salvation itself wrought out by him; this work is done by
Christ, and is published in the Gospel, and is brought nigh and applied by the Spirit of God in
conversion, in due and proper time, and shortly will be fully enjoyed in heaven:

66. and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory: the Saviour himself was to come to
Zion; near to Zion was salvation wrought out; here the Gospel of salvation was first published,
and out of it the word of it was sent into all the world; and in Zion, the church of God, Christ the
Saviour is to be met with; and his salvation is the safety of it, it is placed about it instead of walls
and bulwarks; and all this is for the Israel of God, the spiritual Israel, chosen, redeemed, and
called, and who shall be saved with an everlasting salvation; and who are the glory of God, have
the glory of God, the grace of God in them, and the righteousness of God upon them, by which
they are glorious; who enjoy the presence of the glorious God, and who is glorified in them, and
by them; whose glory, even the glory of all his perfections, wisdom, grace, mercy, justice,
holiness, truth, and faithfulness, is great in their salvation. So Kimchi gives the sense of the
words,
"the salvation I will give to them shall be glory to me,''
Or Israel may be called his glory, because he gives glory to them; not only grace here, but glory
hereafter, when their salvation wilt be complete, that is, completely enjoyed.
4. JAMISON, “near — antithetical to “far” (Isa_46:12; Isa_51:5; Isa_56:1; Isa_61:10,
Isa_61:11; Rom_10:6-8).
righteousness — answering to “salvation” in the parallel clause; therefore it means here,
“my righteous deliverance”; righteous, because proving the truth of God’s promises, and so
contrived as to not compromise, but vindicate, His righteousness (Isa_42:21; Rom_3:26).
Zion ... my glory — rather, “I will give salvation in Zion; to Israel (I will give) my glory”
[Horsley]. (Isa_63:11; Psa_14:7; Luk_2:32).
5. CALVIN, “13.I will bring near my righteousness. If that interpretation which I mentioned a little
before be preferred, that those persons are called “ from righteousness” who are incapable of receiving
the grace of God, the meaning will remain unaltered; but if we hold that the Jews were “ from
righteousness,” because, like desperate men, they were wholly abandoned to crimes, there will be a
beautiful contrast between the righteousness of men and the righteousness of God. Although therefore
the Jews revolted and were estranged from all practice of godliness, yet God assures them that “
righteousness is near;” as if he had said that unbelief is indeed a very great obstacle, but yet that it is
such an obstacle as cannot hinder God from at length manifesting the power of his truth. “ the unbelief of
men,” as Paul says, “ make void the truth of God; and, though men are liars, God will always be true.”
(Rom_3:3.) And indeed, if he did not exceed the malice of men by his goodness, we should all perish
without exception, for who is there that receives God, and makes use of his grace as he ought?
Accordingly, the only reason why he does not continue to bestow benefits upon us is, that we are
estranged from “ righteousness;” and yet, though we are reluctant and make resistance, he approaches
to us in order to display “ righteousness,” though we do not deserve it. Now, he does this in such a
manner that unbelievers obtain no advantage at all from it; for the Prophet did not include wicked
apostates, as if they should be partakers of the salvation which he promises, but he only says that God
has at hand a method by which “ righteousness” shall be made manifest. But here we must consider what
was the condition of the people to whom those things were spoken; for everything had been corrupted by
unbelief, and there were very few who relied on the promises of God; and they who belonged to the
number of the elect sometimes shewed that they were obstinate, so that they appeared to be infected by
the same plague of impiety as the others. He therefore rebukes the whole nation, both to convict the

67. reprobate and, at the same time, to chastise the elect and bring them back into the right path; but
especially, as I have said, he attacks unbelievers, who professedly, as it were, rejected all hope of grace.
And my salvation shall not tarry. This makes still more plain what he meant by the word “” that is, the
assistance which the Lord promised to his people. Consequently, he means the same thing by the word “”
and the word “” for the most remarkable instance of the “” of God is, when he preserves, guards, and
delivers his people. It is not superfluous to say that it is not “” or “” for he describes the greatness of his
mercy by saying, that the Lord opens up a course for his justice, notwithstanding the reluctance and
opposition of the people.
And I will place. The copulative ‫ו‬ (vau) is here used in order to express the cause, “ I will place.” This is an
additional confirmation of the preceding statement, that, since the Lord has once determined to save
Jerusalem, she cannot be deprived of that benefit.
And my glory in Jerusalem. He connects his “” with the “” of believers, as Paul also uses the word “” to
denote “” (Eph_1:6.) The glory of God is most illustriously displayed, when he rescues his people from
destruction and restores them to liberty; for he wished that an indissoluble bond should connect the
salvation of the Church with his righteousness.
6. BI, “Justifying righteousness brought near
It appears from a comparison of many texts of Scripture, that when the word “righteousness” is
connected, as in this passage, with “salvation,” it does not mean the Divine attribute of justice or rectitude,
but the work of righteousness wrought out by the Lord Jesus Christ, and which it is the grand design of
the Gospel to reveal and make offer of to sinners of mankind for their justification--their salvation.
I. Let us inquire with reference to THE RIGHTEOUSNESS SPOKEN OF, why it is termed, in this and so
many other parts of Scripture, “the righteousness of God”? The Lord terms the work of His Son Jesus
Christ--His obedience unto death--His whole endurance of the curse, and fulfilment of the precept of the
law, His own, God’s righteousness. There is no difficulty in seeing why it should be called Christ’s,
because He wrought it out. Our question is, Why the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ is
termed “the righteousness of God”?
1. It is so called, in marked contrast and opposition to man’s own fancied righteousness (Rom_10:3).
2. Because it is that which God has, for the sinner’s justification, devised, provided, and stamped with the
seal of His approabation and acceptance.
3. Because it was wrought out by God in the person of His eternal Son--Emmanuel, “God manifest in the
flesh.”

68. II. WHERE, HOW, AND TO WHAT PARTIES OR PERSONS THE LORD BRINGS THIS
RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR?
1. Where? In the Gospel (Rom_1:16).
2. How? In the free and earnest character of the offers and invitations of the Gospel.
3. To whom? “Ye stouthearted that are far from righteousness.” Ye that not only have no righteousness
but are living at ease,--“stout-hearted,” careless, and indifferent, for the present, at least, about finding
one--“I bring near My righteousness” to you.
While ye despise it, “stout-hearted,” I offer it to you; while ye are “far from righteousness,” righteousness
is brought near to you--it is pressed and urged upon you. Improvement--
1. It may occur to some as an objection, What use in bringing near, and freely offering, a salvation to men
wholly indifferent about it? There can be no doubt, that so long as men are “stout-hearted, and far from
righteousness,” they cannot, in the very nature of the thing, embrace this righteousness; and the offer of it
to them is thus, in one sense, to no purpose. But only in one sense. For, not to speak of believers, who
often find their hearts so hard, that till they see invitations to the “stout-hearted,” they cannot perceive
their warrant at all to trust in Christ--the very freeness and universality of the offer, coming with
overwhelming grace upon the “stout-hearted” sinner, may just be among the most powerful means
blessed of the Holy Ghost for awakening him to deep and serious concern and thought.
2. That you may see how little weight there is in the objection to the doctrine of Christ’s righteousness as
the ground of justification, observe that we read comparatively seldom in Scripture of the righteousness of
Christ--generally of the righteousness of God.
3. We might have remarked, on the question, how the righteousness is brought near, that, besides the
freeness and urgency of Gospel offers, the Lord comes specially near at particular seasons, in the events
and dealings of His providence. (C. J. Brown.)
Two aspects of salvation
The two verses express a paradox which enters deeply into the thought of the prophet. While salvation is
near in point of time, yet Israel is spiritually far from it. Hence the work of salvation or righteousness has
two aspects; along with the providential deliverance of which the agent is Cyrus, there is an inward and
spiritual salvation which consists in bringing the nation to right thoughts about itself and God. And in this
spiritual transformation the instrument is the servant of Jehovah. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Jehovah’s righteousness and Israel’s salvation
(with Isa_51:5):--

69. I. What are these two things--JEHOVAH’S RIGHTEOUSNESS AND ISRAEL’S SALVATION? How are
they related to one another and connected with one another? And what in particular is the meaning of the
precedence or priority assigned to the one as coming before the other--My righteousness, My salvation?
1. It is very evident that the Lord’s righteousness must mean, not a Divine attribute, but a Divine work, or
effect or manifestation of some kind.
2. A judicial dealing with His enemies, on the part of God, precedes and prepares the way for the
deliverance or salvation of His people; and when He brings near the one, the other will not tarry.
3. God must first consult for His own righteous name before He can consult for His people’s complete
safety; He must first right Himself before He can consistently and conclusively deliver them. Only in the
train of the righteousness of God can His salvation go forth.
II. It may be said that THE LORD BRINGS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR, or that it is near, in three
senses.
1. In the Gospel offer as a free gift, wholly of grace, not of works at all.
2. In the powerful striving and working of His Spirit.
3. In the believing appropriation of it which His Spirit enables you to make. (R. S.Candlish, D. D.)
I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory
The connection between the use of means and the accomplishment of Divine purposes
I. THE DIVINE PURPOSES WHICH THE SACRED SCRIPTURES REVEAL. They have respect--
1. To the exhibition of God’s glory in the development of His perfections.
2. To the deliverance of mankind from the consequences of sin.
3. To the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom in the earth.
4. To the total overthrow of the empire of darkness.
5. To the everlasting happiness of believers in the realms of glory.
II. WHAT MEANS ARE EMPLOYED FOR THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THESE PURPOSES.

70. 1. The means which are primary.
(1) The mediatorial character of Christ.
(2) The agency of the Holy Spirit.
(3) The energy of Divine providence.
2. Those means which are subordinate.
(1) The revelation of God’s will in the inspired volume.
(2) The preaching of the Gospel.
(3) The constitution of the Christian Church.
III. THE CONNECTION WHICH EXISTS BETWEEN THE USE OF DIVINELY APPOINTED MEANS AND
THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. That such a connection exists we may argue--
1. On the principle of analogy. Through all the works of God there is an evident connection between the
means and the end.
2. There is a peculiar fitness in the means to accomplish the end.
3. From Divine authority. That the means shall accomplish the end is the frequent subject of the Divine
promise.
4. The evidence of fact further establishes this connection.
5. To deny this connection involves the greatest absurdity.
IV. THE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF THE DOCTRINE.
1. Ought we not to consider our personal interest in the subject? We are within the precincts of the Divine
purposes, and the means of their accomplishment.
2. This subject strongly inculcates holiness in the disciples of Christ. Both the means and the end seem
encircled with a halo of sanctity.
3. We learn our obligation and encouragement in the use of appointed means.
4. Let us be careful that the means we employ are those only of Divine appointment.
5. How dreadful the condition, and dangerous the conduct, of those who oppose the Divine purposes, and
despise Divinely appointed means! (J. R. Cooper.)

71. .
Footnotes:
Isaiah 46:1 Or are but beasts and cattle
New International Version (NIV)
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