They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, [and] hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.
6. They lavish gold &c. ] Better as an exclamation of contempt: They that pour gold etc. The gold and silver are the material out of which the images (or at least their plating) are to be made by the goldsmith (Isa 40:19) who is hired for the work. The word for balance is qneh (reed), never elsewhere used in this sense. It probably denotes the beam of the balance.
they fall down ] The same word ( gad) in Isa 44:15; Isa 44:17; Isa 44:19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6, 7. Contemptuous description of idolatry in general. Comp. especially with ch. Isa 44:9-20.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They lavish gold – The word used here means properly to shake out; and then to pour out abundantly, or in a lavish manner. It is used in connection with the idea of squandering in Deu 21:20; Pro 23:21; Pro 28:7. Here the idea is, that they spared no expense; they poured out gold as if it were vile and worthless, in order to make an idol. The design of this verse is, to show the superstition of those who were idolaters; and, particularly, how much they were willing to devote in order to maintain idol-worship.
Out of the bag – They pour their gold out of the bag, or purse, where they have kept it; that is, they lavish it freely.
And weigh silver in the balance – Perhaps the idea is here, that they used silver so lavishly that they did not wait to count it, but weighed it as they would the grosser metals. The word used here and translated balance ( qaneh), means properly cane, reed, calamus; then a measuring reed or rod Eze 40:3, Eze 40:5; then a rod, or beam of a balance, or scales (Greek zugos).
And hire a goldsmith – (See the notes at Isa 40:19-20).
And he maketh it a god – The goldsmith manufactures the gold and the silver into an image. The object of the prophet is to deride the custom of offering divine homage to a god formed in this manner (see the notes at Isa 44:9-19).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Maketh it a god; let us suppose, a god made with the greatest cost and art.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. (Isa 40:19;Isa 40:20; Isa 41:7.)They lavish gold out of their purses and spare no expense for theiridol. Their profuseness shames the niggardliness of professors whoworship God with what cost them nothing. Sin is always a costlyservice.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They lavish gold out of the bag,…. As if it was of no value and account; that is, the Heathen idolaters, some of them, who are excessively devoted to idolatry; these, being rich, take out their bags of gold, and give it in a very profuse manner to a workman to make a golden image for them, not caring what it cost them; such an one was that which Nebuchadnezzar made, sixty cubits high, and six broad, Da 3:1 see an instance of profuseness this way in the Israelites themselves, Ex 32:2.
And weigh silver in the balance; or “with a reed” o. Others, though idolaters, yet less devoted to idolatry, and more tenacious of their money, make silver do for a god, and weigh it out to the workman, that it be made of such a weight, and no more, and that they might not be cheated of their silver; or they weighed it to pay the workman for his workmanship. Money formerly was not coined and stamped, so not numbered by pieces, but weighed.
And hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god; a “finer” or “founder”, with whom they agree for such a sum of money, and he, of the gold or silver that is put into his hands, makes a god: he casts and moulds it into such a form or shape that is agreed upon, and this is called a god; though nothing but a piece of gold or silver fashioned by art and man’s device, and the work of his hands:
they fall down, yea, they worship; the god they made; both the artificer, and he that employed him, fall down upon their knees, or their faces, and pay divine worship add adoration to the idol; though the one knew it was made of his own gold or silver, and the other knew it to be the workmanship of his hands. Worshipping is more than falling down, as Ben Melech observes, and therefore it is said, yea, they worship.
o “in calamo”, Pagninus, Montanus. The bar of the balance on which they hang the scales with threads, Ben Meleck says is called
, the “reed”. So Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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 is used in the place of the finite verb, as Hitzig imagines, or as equivalent to , as Rosenmller and Gesenius suppose; but up to the whole is subject, and therefore is the point at which the change into the finite verb occurs (Ges. 131, 2). The point in hazzalm 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 ( zul = zalal , to shake, to pour out). Qaneh is the lever of the scales ( ). 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 ( with a distinctive Great Telisha), carry it home, and set it down in the place which it is to have under it ( ). There it stands firm, immoveable, and also deaf and dumb, hearing no one, answering no one, and helping no one. The subject to is any . 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.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
6. Lavishing gold out of bags. The Prophet had formerly said this, and he now repeats it, in order to fix this doctrine more and more deeply on the hearts of men; for superstition has struck its roots so deeply in their hearts, that it cannot be torn out, unless the Lord entirely change our nature. Whatever we have heard about this madness quickly passes out of our minds; for we always carry about some seed of superstition, and there is nothing to which we are more prone than to fall into it. He says, therefore, that one person supplies the materials for manufacturing idols, and another gives them a shape; and that in this way it may be said that there are two fathers of such gods, that is, the rich man who lavishes out the gold or silver, and the workman who adds the shape and makes the idol. Thus he makes an open exposure of the madness of these who seek a deity in their purses and in the hand of their workmen; for what means so sudden a change, that they bow down before the metal, as soon as it has assumed a different shape, and a shape, too, which has been regulated by their own will or caprice? for it is exactly such a god as they have been pleased to manufacture at their own expense.
They even adore. The particle אף, ( aph,) even, heightens the description of this madness; for there might perhaps be some room for repentance, if one who had been overtaken by a sudden mistake adored some false god; but these men obstinately persevere in their error. This word therefore draws attention more strongly to that obstinacy, and shews that they are altogether blinded. Excessively foolish, as I have said, is this stupidity, when men adore a god which they have made with their own hands.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
6, 7. They lavish gold A more brief but substantially similar picture to the one drawn in Isa 44:12-20. The idols of the more wealthy are here, doubtless, referred to. But costliness in worship, whether that of idols or the true God, does not in itself make it the more acceptable.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 46:6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, [and] hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.
Ver. 6. They lavish gold out of the bag. ] They spare for no cost. Nebuchadnezzar did not in that vast Colossus. Dan 3:1 Canutus bestowed upon a cross his whole annual entrado, or revenue. He also gave a hundred talents of silver and one of gold for St Augustine’s arm, which he bestowed on Coventry as a memorial of his blind zeal. The Lady of Loretto hath her churches so stuffed with vowed presents and memorials, as they are forced to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. a
a Sandys’s Relation.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
god. Hebrew El. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
lavish: Isa 40:19, Isa 40:20, Isa 41:6, Isa 41:7, Isa 44:12-19, Isa 45:20, Exo 32:2-4, Jdg 17:3, Jdg 17:4, 1Ki 12:28, Jer 10:3, Jer 10:4, Jer 10:9, Jer 10:14, Hos 8:4-6, Hab 2:18-20, Act 17:29
they fall: Isa 2:8, Isa 44:17, Dan 3:5-15
Reciprocal: Exo 32:3 – General Exo 32:4 – fashioned Exo 34:17 – General Num 23:14 – built seven Neh 3:8 – the goldsmiths Psa 115:4 – Their idols Psa 135:15 – idols Isa 2:20 – his idols of silver Isa 30:22 – thy graven images of silver Isa 44:9 – and their Isa 55:2 – spend Jer 2:13 – broken cisterns Jer 2:27 – to a stock Dan 3:1 – made Dan 5:4 – of gold Dan 5:23 – which Hos 2:8 – which they prepared for Baal Hos 13:2 – have made Hab 2:19 – it is Luk 4:7 – worship me
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
This is Isaiah’s fourth and last exposé of the folly of idol worship (cf. Isa 40:19-20; Isa 41:6-7; Isa 44:9-20). How foolish it is to spend a lot of money and effort to make something that cannot care for itself much less its worshipper. It has no power to respond in any way, much less to save.
"There are two kinds of gods in this world: the kind you carry and the One who can carry you." [Note: Dyer, in The Old . . ., p. 569.]