[1] Bal has bowed down, Nabo has stooped down. Their idols were for the beast and for the cattle. The ones who carry you all are the ones loaded up, a burden for the weary.
[2] They stooped down, they bowed down together. They could not deliver the burden. Their soul into captivity it has gone.
[3] Listen you all to me, house of Ya’oh-ghakab, and all the remnant of the house of Ya’oh-shar-al, the ones loaded from the belly, the ones carried from the womb.
[4] Even unto old age, I am He. And even unto the hoary head, I will bear. I have made, and I will lift up, and I will bear, and I will deliver.
[5] To who will you liken me, and you all will equate me, and you will compare me, and we will be alike?
[6] The ones who devalue gold from the bag, and money by the rod they will pay out. They will hire a refiner and he will make it a god. They will fall down, indeed, they will worship.
[7] He will carry it upon the shoulder. They will bear it, and he will cause it to rest instead of him. And it will stand from its place, not will it be removed. Indeed, he will cry to it, and it will not answer. From his troubles it will not save him.
[8] Recall you all this, and make yourselves firm. Cause to bring the ones who transgress upon the heart.
[9] Recall the former things from old, for I am the Power, and there isn’t another Higher Power, and none is like me.
[10} The one who declares from the beginning the end, and from old time that which not have they been done. The one saying, my counsel will stand, and all of my pleasure I will do.
[11] The one who calls from the blazing forth of the sun the ravenous bird, from a land far away, the man of my counsel. Indeed, I have spoken, indeed I will cause it to come to pass. I have formed, indeed I will do it.
[12] Listen you all to me, stout ones of heart, the ones far from righteousness.
[13] I have brought near my righteousness, it will not be far off; and my salvation, it will not be delayed. I have put in Tsay’on salvation for Ya’oh-shar-al my glory.
COMMENTARY
[Verses 1-4] The people who carried the images of Bal and Nabo around during their pagan religious processions will be loaded and carried off into captivity. Bal and Nabo are bent and stooped down, they cannot deliver their worshipers. A very rigid dichotomy between Bal and Nabo and between YA’OH is cast by the prophet Yashai-Ya’oh in this chapter. Unlike Bal and Nabo whose images were carried around, YA’OH is the one who bears and who carries Ya’oh-shar-al since the womb unto old age. They don’t carry YA’OH. He carries them and He will deliver them out of their captivity.
This chapter in Yashai-Ya’oh is talking about a time when Bal and Nabo will be humiliated and disgraced and their devotees will be taken into captivity. That never happened in the days of Cyrus of Persia. In fact it never happened during the entire period of the Persian empire or subsequent periods. Cyrus the Persian did not dishonor Bal and Nabo. Quite the contrary. He honored them and called them his lords. In one inscription from the temple of Eanna in Uruk, Cyrus calls himself “the caretaker of the temples of Esagila and Ezida,” respectively the sanctuaries of the pagan gods Bal in Babylon and Nabo in Borsippa.
The source is: A. Schott, “Die inschriftlichen Quellen zur Geschichte Ēannas,” APAW, Phil.-hist. Kl., 7, 1930, p. 63, no. 31.
The Persian king Xerxes is rumored by the Greek historian Herodotus to have taken away the image of the god Bal in Babylon and closed the god’s temple of Esagila in reaction to a rebellion in 484 BCE, but actual archaeology disproves this. A document drafted in Babylon in the year 328 BCE shows money being paid to the Esagila temple (see Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, vol. 49 [London, 1968], no. 6) which means the temple of Bal was still operational down into the times of Alexander the great. The Esagila was never destroyed and closed by the Persians. Nor was it destroyed by the Greeks who succeeded the Persians.
The source is: H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg and J. W. Drijvers, eds. Achaemenid History V: Centre and Periphery. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, 1990. A. Kuhrt, “Alexander and Babylon,” pp. 121-130.
Cyrus also did not destroy the city of Babylon and take Babylonians into captivity. Not a single Babylonian in the city of Babylon was killed in battle or taken captive by Cyrus when he took over Babylon peacefully without a battle in 539 BCE. From his own lips he says no one was hurt and no religious ceremony in the city of Babylon was omitted as a result of the Persian occupation.
Thus, this chapter in Yashai-Ya’oh has no hope of being fulfilled unless it is predicting the violent collapse of the strongest nation ever to exist in the history of human civilization. America is the most Christian nation on earth and its capital city is either the prophetic modern-day Babylon or there is no such thing as a prophetic Babylon and the prophets of YA’OH who predicted the violent and catastrophic overthrowing of Babylon have all made an error. The latter is unlikely. The prophets never once say that ancient Babylon would be violently destroyed. The demise of ancient Babylon was neither violent nor abrupt. It was a slow death caused by the ravages of time and not by an invading army, nor by a natural disaster. The prophets of YA’OH were all talking about the destruction of modern-day Babylon, i.e. the United States of America.
The gods of ancient Babylon are not worshiped anymore by anyone. However, their modern-day counterparts are. Bal and Nabo were pagan father and son deities. Their modern-day counterparts are none other than Christianity’s God the father and God the son. What the prophet is doing is coding the primary gods currently worshiped and revered in America by the names of the pagan Babylonian gods Bal and Bal’s son Nabo.
[Verses 5-7] The images of Bal and Nabo were fashioned by the Babylonians who also made their nation great, but YA’OH was not fashioned or made by anyone and He made the nation of Ya’oh-shar-al. Hence, there is no one who you can compare YA’OH to. There is no one like Him and He has no equal.
Whenever the prophet Yashai-Ya’oh goes into depth with regards to how an idol image is made by a craftsman we have learned from chapter 44 that the prophet is not literally describing the step by step process of a craftsman who forms a statue but is rather describing the emergence of a social organization, i.e. a nation, that is idolized by the peope instrumental in its formation and who benefit the most from that nation’s success.
“The ones who devalue the gold from the bag” refers to a nation rich in gold reserves, the bag, but it devalued gold once it terminated the convertibility of its currency to gold.
It “pays out money by the rod” refers to the rod of a government’s order, or fiat, that its currency must be accepted by law as a means of payment. No countries operate on a pure gold standard anymore, but the United States of America holds the largest “bag” of gold reserves in the world and the US dollar is the most important and the most-traded fiat currency in the world. Hence the US dollar and not gold is the benchmark for determining the strength of every nation’s currency all over the world.
“He will hire a refiner and he will make it a god and they will fall down, indeed, they will worship…” The “refiner” is the US president who is “hired,” that is, elected into office by the people who are mentioned collectively as the subject of the verb in the third person, singular. The job of every US president is to make the nation great, to make the nation a god, and the president’s people will fall down and pay homage to this god.
“He will carry it upon the shoulder, he will bear it.” On the day of their inauguration every US president swears an oath that he will do this for the nation during his term in office.
“He will cause it to rest instead of him,” meaning the US president is committed to see that the nation is always at rest and secure and that it will continue on idefinitely, whereas a president’s term in office is limited and he does not seek a permanent appointment.
“And it will stand from its place, it will not remove.” The United States of America stands firmly established and cannot be removed from its place apart from a supernatural act of YA’OH, the Higher Power who made heaven and earth and everything in them.
“Indeed, he will cry unto it, but it will not respond; from his troubles it will not save him.” As strong as the United States of America has become, the strongest nation ever to exist, in the end it will not respond to the last man to hold the office of the president when he crys out for help. When real trouble comes knocking on the nation’s door from the east the nation will not be able to save its president. The nation will be as useless and as speechless as an actual idol statue that is made by a cunning and wise craftsman.
[Verse 8] “Recall this you all and make yourselves firm.” Remembering how foolish it is to put one’s trust in a statue made by a craftsman cannot possibly be all that is intended by the imperative verb זכרו in this verse. The direct order being given to Ya’oh-shar-al is much deeper than recalling the nothingness of making and bowing down to an actual image made of stone, wood, or metal. The verse is commanding the prophet’s awakened audience in Ya’oh-shar-al to recall how that idol nation was formed, how it oppressed the exiles of the house of Ya’oh-ghakab forcibly removed to its shores, and how YA’OH is the only one who called all of this long before any of it happened. They are referred to the history of their nation living within the United States from a different perspective, one in which YA’OH is realized to have been the orchestrator of their history, in order that they may strengthen themselves in Him and be redeemed.
“Bring you all the ones who transgress upon the heart.” The “heart” is the mind. Ya’oh-shar-al is ordered to consider the men who have wronged them and to contemplate their just punishment, for the remnant of Ya’oh-shar-al is to be the very instrument of YA’OH’s vengeful indignation against that idol nation that held them captive and oppressed them. His people will avenge themselves.
[Verse 9] They are referred to the history of their nation living within the United States from a different perspective, one in which YA’OH is realized to have been the orchestrator of their history, in order that they may strengthen themselves in Him and be redeemed. There is no Power except YA’OH. He is the one who caused His nation’s curses and He is the only one who can reverse them.
[Verse 10] He proves His existence by prophecy, by declaring from the beginning what the end will be.
[Verse 11] The ravenous bird is the man YA’OH will use to execute His counsel in the end, and his coming is announced here in the beginning. The counsel of YA’OH is the destruction of the imperial city of Babal. The feminine suffixes on the verbs in this verse refer in a neuter sense to the theme of the prophecy – the overthrow of idolatrous Babal, upon which Chorash comes down like an eagle in the strength of YA’OH. What YA’OH has said He will do, He will indeed do and it cannot be stopped. How can the ravenous bird be Cyrus of Persia when Cyrus of Persia did not destroy Babylon and fulfill the counsel of YA’OH?
[12] This verse is a final warning to the majority of Ya’oh-shar-al that is hard hearted and far from righteousness. They must turn to YA’OH by following the man of His counsel, or be destroyed.
[Verse 13] When Chorash has carried out the destruction of Babal the righteousness of YA’OH is from that point brought near and into the light for all to see. It will not be far off so that no one can see it. Everyone will see it. The salvation of YA’OH will no longer be delayed as it was before the days of the ravenous bird. YA’OH will give salvation in Tsayon for Ya’oh-shar-al, the glory of YA’OH.
Although not stated in this chapter, the people of Tsay’on are to be relocated to the second wilderness in the days of Chorash the ravenous bird because that is where YA’OH will put salvation for a time, times, and a half.
His name is YA’OH
Always has been. Always will be.
#EXODUS2023
April 5, 2023
Thodah la YA’OH mabayn for this updated blog of Yashaiyaoh 46:1-13.
“YA’OH malach ha malachaym, adon ha adanaym chabod halalo yah” Shalom mabayn.