Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_200_p.lzh/5_269.TXT

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and shall glory; in Christ, as the Lord their righteous-
Hess; not in themselves, m their own righteousness,
holiness, wisdom, and strength, but in this, that Christ
is made to them wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption, 1 for. i.

C H A P. XLVI.

THIS chapter contains a prophecy of the taking of:
Babylon by Cyrus, and of the deliverance of the Jews;
who are encouraged to expect the divine protection,
and a continuance of it; are dehorted from idolatry-,
and directed to look to the Lord alone for righteous-
ness and salvation. The taking of Babylon is signified
by the demolition of its idols, which become the plun-
der of the enemy, and by the carrying of the inhabitants
of it captive, vet. 1, .o. Then follows a promise of
grace and mercy to the remnant of Israel that should
now be delivered; that the Lord, who had cared for
them from the infancy of their. state, would not leave
them in their declining times, vet. 3, 4. when they are
dehorted from the worship of idols, from the conside-
ration of the matter of which they were made, as
silver and gold; from their being the works of men's
hands; and from their inability to move themselves,.
or help others; and from the Lord being.the true God,
as appears by his omnipotence and ommscience, ver.
5, t/, 7, 8, 9, 10. A description is given of Cyrus, who
should be the instrument of the Jews' deliverance from
Babylon, ver. 11. And the chapter is concluded with
an address to the stout-hearted and unrighteous Jews,
to observe the righteousness and salvation which were
brought near and set before them, ver. 12, 13.
Vet. 1. Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, &c.] These
are names of the idols of Babylon. Bel is by some
thought to be the contraction of Baal, the god of the
Phoenicians, called by them Beel; so Beelsaminn, in
the Phcenician language, is Lord of heaven: but rather
this is the Betus of the Babyloninns, who was a re-
nowned king of them, and after his death deified;
whom Nebuchadnezzar, according to Megasthenes{l},
calls Belus Iris progenitor, and by whom Babylon was
walled about. This idol is, no doubt, the same with
Jupiter Belus, who had a temple in Babylon with gates
of brass, and which was in being in the times of Hero-
dotus {k}, as he reports. This name is sometimes taken
into the names of their kings, as Bel-shazzar or Belle-
sbazaar. Nebo was another of their idols, an oracular
one, from whom, by its priests, prophesies of things
future were pretended to be given out; for it may
have its name from \^abn\^, to prophesy, and answers to
the Apollo or Mercury of other nations. The Alex-
andfinn copy of the Septuagint has very wrongly, in-
stead of it, Dagon the god of the Philistines; and so
the Arabic version Dsagon. This name Nebo was also
taken into the names of the kings of Babylon, as Nabo-
nassar, Nabo-palassar, Nebu-chadnezzar, and others.
As Bel is the same with Belus, so Nebo is the same
with Beltis, the queen Megasthenes or Abydenus
speaks of in the same place; and Bel may design the
sun, and Nebo the moon, which may have its name
from \^bwn\^, to bud forth, or make fruitful, as the' moon
does; see Dent. xxxiii. 14. It is said of both these
deities, that they stooped or bowed down; being taken
down from the high places where they were set up-
right, and looked grand and majestic, and where they
might be seen and worshipped by the people. Jarchi
gives the words another sense, that it represents in a
sarcastic way these idols, as through fear, in a like con-
dition that men are in, in a fit of the colic, who not
being able to get to the close-stool, are obliged to bend
their knees, and ease themselves as they can {i}. Aben
Ezra seems to refer to the same signification of the
word, when he says the sense was well known, but it
was not fit to write it. The prophet goes on in the
derision of these idols: their idols were upon the beasts,
and upon the cattle; that is, being taken down, and
broke to pieces for the sake of the silver, and gold, and
brass that were about them, or they were made of, they
were put into sacks by the Persians, and laid upon
camels, and mules, and horses, and transported into
Media and Persia. Jarchi interprets it, their idols
are like to beasts, which defile themselves with their
dung as they do; and so the Targum renders it, "their
"ima es are in the likeness of serpents and beasts."
Thesegwere the forms of them: your carriages were
heavy losden, they are a burden to the weary beast;
this seems to be spoken to the Persians, who loaded
their carriages, and their beasts, with this lumber, that
their waggons were ready to break down, and their
cattle groaned under the weight of it; a sarcastic jeer
at the idols which were become the plunder and prey
of the soldiers. It was usual at the taking of cities to
demolish the idols of them; and this was typical of
the demolition of Heathen idols, and the cessation of
Heathen oracles in the Gentile world, through the
spread of the Gospel in it, in the first times of
Christianity.
Ver. 2. They stoop, they bow tog'ether, &c.] Either
the beasts under their burdens, or other idols besides
those mentioned; or rather the Babyloninns them-
selves, who were obliged to submit to the conquerors:
they could not deliver the burdens; the idols could not
save themselves from being laid as burdens upon the
beasts, any more than they could save their wor-
shippets: so the Targum understands this and the
preceding clause of them; "they are cut off, and cut
"to pieces together, they could not deliver those that
"carried them ;" or else the Babyloninns are designed,
who could not save their gods from being used in this
shameful manner: but themselves are gone into capti-
vity, or their souls{m}; what were as dear to them as

{h} Sanchoniatho apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. I. 1. c. 10. p. 34.
{i} Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. I. 9. c. 4 I. p. 456.
{k} Clio, sive I. 1. c. 181. Vid. Pausan. Messen. p. 261.
{l} Vid. gloss. in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol 63.2.
{m} \^Mvpnw\^ et animae eorum, V.L. Munster. Pagninus, Montanus,
Cocceius.