45:20 Gather together and come!
Approach together, you refugees from the nations!
Those who carry wooden idols know nothing,
those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.
45:21 Tell me! Present the evidence! 1
Let them consult with one another!
Who predicted this in the past?
Who announced it beforehand?
Was it not I, the Lord?
I have no peer, there is no God but me,
a God who vindicates and delivers; 2
there is none but me.
45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, 3
all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!
For I am God, and I have no peer.
45:23 I solemnly make this oath 4 –
what I say is true and reliable: 5
‘Surely every knee will bow to me,
every tongue will solemnly affirm; 6
45:24 they will say about me,
“Yes, the Lord is a powerful deliverer.”’” 7
All who are angry at him will cower before him. 8
45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord
and will boast in him. 9
46:1 Bel 10 kneels down,
Nebo 11 bends low.
Their images weigh down animals and beasts. 12
Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. 13
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 14
they themselves 15 head off into captivity. 16
46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, 17
all you who are left from the family of Israel, 18
you who have been carried from birth, 19
you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. 20
46:4 Even when you are old, I will take care of you, 21
even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.
I made you and I will support you;
I will carry you and rescue you. 22
46:5 To whom can you compare and liken me?
Tell me whom you think I resemble, so we can be compared!
46:6 Those who empty out gold from a purse
and weigh out silver on the scale 23
hire a metalsmith, who makes it into a god.
They then bow down and worship it.
46:7 They put it on their shoulder and carry it;
they put it in its place and it just stands there;
it does not 24 move from its place.
Even when someone cries out to it, it does not reply;
it does not deliver him from his distress.
1 tn Heb “Declare! Bring near!”; NASB “Declare and set forth your case.” See 41:21.
2 tn Or “a righteous God and deliverer”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “a righteous God and a Savior.”
3 tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”
4 tn Heb “I swear by myself”; KJV, NASB “have sworn.”
5 tn Heb “a word goes out from my mouth [in] truth and will not return.”
6 tn Heb “swear” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “confess allegiance.”
7 tn Heb “‘Yes, in the Lord,’ one says about me, ‘is deliverance and strength.’”
8 tn Heb “will come to him and be ashamed.”
9 tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”
10 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.
11 sn Nebo is a variation of the name of the Babylonian god Nabu.
12 tn Heb “their images belong to animals and beasts”; NIV “their idols are borne by beasts of burden”; NLT “are being hauled away.”
13 tn Heb “your loads are carried [as] a burden by a weary [animal].”
14 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
15 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”).
16 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.
17 tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV “descendants of Jacob.”
18 tn Heb “and all the remnant of the house of Israel.”
19 tn Heb “from the womb” (so NRSV); KJV “from the belly”; NAB “from your infancy.”
20 tn Heb “who have been lifted up from the womb.”
21 tn Heb “until old age, I am he” (NRSV similar); NLT “I will be your God throughout your lifetime.”
22 sn Unlike the weary idol gods, whose images must be carried by animals, the Lord carries his weary people.
23 tn Heb “the reed,” probably referring to the beam of a scales. See BDB 889 s.v. קָנֶה 4.c.
24 tn Or perhaps, “cannot,” here and in the following two lines. The imperfect forms can indicate capability.