What Does Isaiah 46:1 Mean in the King James?
Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The thing expected to carry power is being carried itself, and its weight falls on the already-weary.
THE MEANING
בֵּל (Bel, “lord”) bows; Nebo stoops, and their images ride on beasts and cattle as cargo weighing down a weary animal. What seems powerful cannot bear itself; the exhausted creature carries it. Wherever a source of trust becomes another weight to bear, this scene is present again.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a thing’s authority means it can sustain you dissolves here: the image before which others bow is itself a load borne by the weary.
THE ROOT
מַשָּׂא
massa
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
nasa
to lift, carry, bear
The “carriages” and the “burden” belong to נשׂא (nasa), “to lift, carry, bear”: one is what is carried, the other the weight borne. English names the load and the act of bearing separately; Hebrew holds them in one word family, making the cargo and its carrier part of the same word-picture.
ALSO GROWS
nesu'oteychem: your carried things; your carriages
נְשֻׂאֹתֵיכֶם
This form appears in the verse itself: what is carried becomes a burden for the weary beast.
nōśēʾ: one who carries or bears; a bearer
נֹשֵׂא
The word names the carrier in the scene, sharpening the contrast between the carried image and the weary creature bearing it.
THE PATTERN
When a supposed power cannot carry its own weight, the burden falls on another; scripture contrasts this with God bearing people.
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.They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.THE THREAD
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.The burden מַשָּׂא (massa, “load”) in verse 1 comes from נשׂא (nasa, “lift, carry, bear”). In verse 4, God says אֶשָּׂא (essa, “I will bear”), from that same root: the carrier changes, from the weary beast bearing the image to God bearing the person.
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