Isaiah 46:6

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.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 הזּלים is used in the place of the finite verb, as Hitzig imagines, or as equivalent to זלים הם, as Rosenmller and Gesenius suppose; but up to ישׂכּרוּ the whole is subject, and therefore ישׁקלוּ is the point at which the change into the finite verb occurs (Ges. 131, 2). The point in hazzâlı̄m 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 (zūl = zâlal, to shake, to pour out). Qâneh is the lever of the scales (κανών). 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 (ישּׂאהוּ with a distinctive Great Telisha), carry it home, and set it down in the place which it is to have under it (תּחתּיו). There it stands firm, immoveable, and also deaf and dumb, hearing no one, answering no one, and helping no one. The subject to יצעק is any צעק. 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.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

(Isa 40:19-20; Isa 41:7.) They lavish gold out of their purses and spare no expense for their idol. Their profuseness shames the niggardliness of professors who worship God with what cost them nothing. Sin is always a costly service.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 qâneh (reed), never elsewhere used in this sense. It probably denotes the beam of the balance.

they fall down] The same word (ṣâgad) in Isa_44:15; Isa_44:17; Isa_44:19.

6, 7. Contemptuous description of idolatry in general. Comp. especially with ch. Isa_44:9-20.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Dan 3:1 see an instance of profuseness this way in the Israelites themselves, Exo 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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’ (קנה qâneh), 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 ζυγὸς 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).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Maketh it a god; let us suppose, a god made with the greatest cost and art.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

“The prodigals (or lavish ones) will weigh gold from the bag, and silver with the rod; they will hire a gilder, and he will make it a god; they will bow down, yea they will fall prostrate.” ‘From the bag’ may be explained either as meaning taken out of the purse, or in reference to the bag of weights, in which sense it is used in Deu 25:13; Mic 6:11. The word translated ‘rod’ is properly a reed, then any rod or bar, such as the shaft of a candlestick (Exo 25:31), and here the beam of a balance or the graduated rod of a steelyard. The verse has reference to the wealthier class of idol-worshippers.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Those who let gold run from the purse Heb. הַזָּלִים, an expression of (Ps. 146:18) “Water runs (יִזְּלוּ).”

with the balance Heb. קָנֶה, the bar of a scale, called flael in O.F.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

הולים They lavish gold, etc. Many compare this word with אזל is spent (1 Sam. 9:7), and assume here the elision of the first radical (א); but it is in fact hap. leg.; for אזל is intransitive. הזלים means who give. מכיס Out of the bag. The bag is a part of the balance; comp. בכיסך in thy bag (Deut. 25:13). The succeeding בקנה has a similar meaning; it is hap. leg.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.