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Selected Verse: Isaiah 46:2 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Isa 46:2 |
King James |
They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
deliver--from the enemies' hands.
burden--their images laid on the beasts (Isa 46:1).
themselves--the gods, here also distinguished from their images. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
They stoop - Bel, and Nebo, and all the Babylonian gods (see Isa 46:1).
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. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| They - The Babylonians. Together - The Babylonians and their idols together, neither could help the other. Deliver - The Babylonians could not deliver their idols. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
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. |
1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.
1 Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.