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"Foolish men, instead of letting God undertake for them, go to and try what their own
hands and hammers can effect."
"This cleavage is permanent in humanity--between the men that are trying to carry
their religion, and the men that are allowing God to carry them."
"Over against this kind of religion, which may be reduced to so many pounds
avoirdupois, the prophet sees in contrast the God of Israel" (Geo. Adam Smith).
"Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols upon the beasts, and upon the cattle:
your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast. They stoop,
they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into
captivity. Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
which are borne by Me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: and even to
your old age I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will
bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you" (Isa. 46: 1-4).
The reader will observe two features here. First, there is the emphasis upon dead
weight--"heavy loaden", "burden", "weary beast", but the transition at verse 3 introduces
in the English version a new theme, that of bringing to birth. This is only a new theme
however in the translation. Anyone acquainted with the original would have already
sensed the double meaning of the prophet. This underlying meaning we must attempt to
make clear, but the effect will be laboured and spoiled in the explaining, it cannot strike
the reader with the freshness that it does when coming upon it first of all without the
interposition of the Lexicon and Concordance.
Let us examine the words used, and endeavour to approach a little toward the vantage
ground of the reader of the original. "Bow down." This word is the translation of the
Hebrew kara, and is used chiefly either for bowing the knee in adoration or worship, or
bowing in submission to a conqueror:
"Unto Me every knee shall bow" (Isa. 45: 23).
"At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he
bowed, there he fell" (Judges 5: 27).
There is one occurrence where this word is associated child-birth:
"And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and
when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and
her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her"
(I Sam. 4: 19).
"Heavy loaden" (amas). This word occurs in Isaiah but twice, and provides an
example of the double meaning we are endeavouring to show:
"Your carriages were heavy loaden" (Isa. 46: 1).
"Which are borne by Me from the belly" (Isa. 46: 3).
"Deliver" (malat). This word is used chiefly with the idea of being delivered from an
enemy, or escaping from some threatened calamity. It is used however on one occasion
in Isaiah in the sense of being delivered of a child:
"They could not deliver the burden" (Isa. 46: 2).
"I will carry, and will deliver you" (Isa. 46: 4).