Isaiah 46:2

They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
stoop	קָרְס֤וּ ka.re.Su	H7164	to hunch · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
down	כָֽרְעוּ֙ kha.re.'U	H3766	to bend the knee · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
together	יַחְדָּ֔ו yach.Dav	H3162	properly · adverb
could	יָכְל֖וּ ya.khe.Lu	H3201	to be able · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
deliver	מַלֵּ֣ט ma.Let	H4422	properly · verb, piel infinitive construct
burden	מַשָּׂ֑א ma.Sa'	H4853	a burden · noun, common masculine singular absolute
themselves	וְנַפְשָׁ֖ם ve.naf.Sham	H5315	properly · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
gone	הָלָֽכָה ha.La.khah	H1980	to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
captivity	בַּשְּׁבִ֥י ba.she.Vi	H7628	exiled · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Jeremiah 48:7 For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with hi…
Judges 18:17-18 And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and…
Judges 18:24 And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye s…
2 Samuel 5:21 And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.
Jeremiah 43:12-13 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himsel…
Isaiah 36:18-19 Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand…
Isaiah 37:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which…
Isaiah 37:19 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed th…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 46:1-4

We are here told, I. That the false gods will certainly fail their worshippers when they have most need of them, Isa 46:1, 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 were taken into the names of their princes, Bel into Belshazzar's, Nebo into Nebuchadnezzar's and Nebuzaradan's, etc…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 46:2

deliver--from the enemies' hands. burden--their images laid on the beasts (Isa 46:1). themselves--the gods, here also distinguished from their images.

John Gill on Isaiah 46:2

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);…

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John Calvin on Isaiah 46:2

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 capti…

The Church Fathers

By the same token, [Isaiah] says, as all the other burdens that are unable to walk but have to be carried, the idols, by reason of their inanimate nature, constrain their porters to toil. Their impotence is so great that they cannot even—as people do in war time—take flight.
— Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 14:46.2

Here [Isaiah] argues that the idols are weak since they will be carried into slavery as the cargo of elephants and even the burden of mules. And the people who carry them will bow low to put them on their shoulders. How can someone bearing God be weak like that? But these burdens are not God. Otherwise how could they be carried off as slaves of war? How would the ones carrying such things worship them? Others say that this burden is like the solemn procession of the demons that priests carry out when they bear statues on their shoulders and process through the streets bearing their burdens.These words also remind Israel of their enemies who led them off: just as their enemies fell down and worshiped these idols who spoke in riddles contrary to reason, so also the demons were a heavy and oppressive burden to the souls [of Israel] whenever these demons enslaved them in ungodliness as they took them prisoner and bound them with the ropes of their [own] sins.
— Procopius of Gaza, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 46:1.5

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Gate — (1.) Of cities, as of Jerusalem (Jer. 37:13; Neh. 1:3; 2:3; 3:3), of Sodom (Gen. 19:1), of Gaza (Judg. 16:3). (2.) Of royal palaces (Neh. 2:8). (3.) Of the temple of Solomon (1 Kings 6:34, 35; 2…

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Isaiah 46:2

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 46:1-4

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 46:2

John Gill on Isaiah 46:2

John Calvin on Isaiah 46:2

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 46:2

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 46:1-4

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 46:2

John Gill on Isaiah 46:2

John Calvin on Isaiah 46:2

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 46:1-2

Rashi on Isaiah 46:2