Isaiah 46:1-7 ▼

1 Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Idols depicting them are consigned to beasts and cattle. The images you carry are loaded, as a burden for the weary animal.

2 The gods cower; they crouch together; they are not able to rescue the burden, but they themselves go into captivity.

3 “Listen to me, house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.

4 I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will bear and rescue you.

5 “To whom will you compare me or make me equal? Who will you measure me with, so that we should be like each other?

6 Those who pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales — they hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god. Then they kneel and bow down to it.

7 They lift it to their shoulder and bear it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands; it does not budge from its place. They cry out to it but it doesn’t answer; it saves no one from his trouble.