Isaiah 46:6

The negative answer to this question is the direct result of what precedes, but a still further proof is given in Isa 46:6, Isa 46:7. "They who pour gold out of the bag, and weigh silver with the balance, hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, that they may fall down, yea, throw themselves down. They lift it up, carry it away upon their shoulder, and set it down in its place: there it stands; from its place it does not move: men also cry to it, but it does not answer; it saves no one out of distress." There is no necessity for assuming that הזּלים is used in the place of the finite verb, as Hitzig imagines, or as equivalent to זלים הם, as Rosenmller and Gesenius suppose; but up to ישׂכּרוּ the whole is subject, and therefore ישׁקלוּ is the point at which the change into the finite verb occurs (Ges. 131, 2). The point in hazzâlı̄m is not the extravagant expenditure, as Ewald thinks, but the mean origin of the god, which commences with the pouring out of gold from a purse (zūl = zâlal, to shake, to pour out). Qâneh is the lever of the scales (κανών). The metal weighed out is given to a goldsmith, who plates the idol with the gold, and makes the ornaments for it of silver. When it is finished, they lift it up, or shoulder it (ישּׂאהוּ with a distinctive Great Telisha), carry it home, and set it down in the place which it is to have under it (תּחתּיו). There it stands firm, immoveable, and also deaf and dumb, hearing no one, answering no one, and helping no one. The subject to יצעק is any צעק. The first admonition closes here. The gods who are carried fall without being able to save themselves, whereas Israel's God carries and saves His people; He, the Incomparable, more especially in contrast with the lifeless puppets of idols.

God, by the prophet here, designing shortly to deliver them out of their captivity, prepared them for that deliverance by possessing them with a detestation of idols and with a believing confidence in God, even their own God. I. Let them not be afraid of the idols of Babylon, as if they could in any way obstruct their deliverance, for they should be defaced (Isa 46:1, Isa 46:2); but let them trust in that God who had often delivered them to do it still, to do it now (Isa 46:3, Isa 46:4). II. Let them not think to make idols of their own, images of the God of Israel, by them to worship him, as the Babylonians worship their gods (Isa 46:5-7). Let them not be so sottish (Isa 46:8), but have an eye to God in his word, not in an image; let them depend upon that, and upon the promises and predictions of it, and God's power to accomplish them all (Isa 46:9-11). And let them know that the unbelief of man shall not make the word of God of no effect (Isa 46:12, Isa 46:13).