The downfall of Babylon’s gods

46 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops:

consigned are their idols to beasts –

on weary beasts lifted and laden.

2 They crouch, they are bowed down together;

unable to rescue their load,

they themselves are gone into captivity.

3 Hearken to me, house of Jacob,

you of Israel’s house who remain,

all you who from birth have been carried

and upheld since the day you were born.

4 Till old age I am ever the same;

till your hair is grey, I will carry you.

It is I who have borne the burden,

it is I who will carry it still;

it is I who will carry and save you.

5 To whom will you liken or equal me?

Whom will you set as my peer?

6 They who freely give gold from a purse

and who weigh in a balance the silver,

hire a goldsmith to fashion a god of it;

then they fall down and worship it.

7 They carry the load on their shoulder,

and set it down on its base,

where it stands, in its place, unmoved.

It answers no man’s cry,

it saves no man in his trouble.

8 Reflect, then, and own yourselves guilty;

you rebels, lay it to heart.

9 Remember the things of long ago;

for I am God, and there is none like me.

10 From the first I declare the issue,

from ancient times things yet to be done;

I declare that my purpose will stand,

I will execute all my pleasure.

11 I have called a wild bird from the sunrise,

the man of my purpose from a far distant land.

I will usher in what I promised,

and accomplish the thing that I planned.

12 Hearken to me, you faint-hearted,

who deem that your triumph is far away;

13 the triumph I bring you is near, not far,

my deliverance will not tarry.

I will set the deliverance in Zion,

and lavish my glory on Israel.