46:1 Bel 3 kneels down,
Nebo 4 bends low.
Their images weigh down animals and beasts. 5
Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. 6
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 7
they themselves 8 head off into captivity. 9
1 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Philistines) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tc For “idols” the LXX and Vulgate have “gods.”
3 sn Bel was the name of a Babylonian god. The name was originally associated with Enlil, but later was applied to Marduk. See HALOT 132 s.v. בֵּל.
4 sn Nebo is a variation of the name of the Babylonian god Nabu.
5 tn Heb “their images belong to animals and beasts”; NIV “their idols are borne by beasts of burden”; NLT “are being hauled away.”
6 tn Heb “your loads are carried [as] a burden by a weary [animal].”
7 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
8 tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).
9 sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.