46 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops,
their idols are on beasts and cattle;
these things you carry are loaded
    as burdens on weary beasts.
² They stoop, they bow down together,
    they cannot save the burden,
    but themselves go into captivity.

³ “Hearken to me, O house of Jacob,
    all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from your birth,
    carried from the womb;
⁴ even to your old age I am He,
    and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
    I will carry and will save.

⁵ “To whom will you liken me and make me equal,
    and compare me, that we may be alike?
⁶ Those who lavish gold from the purse,
    and weigh out silver in the scales,
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
    then they fall down and worship!
⁷ They lift it upon their shoulders, they carry it,
    they set it in its place, and its stands there;
    it cannot move from its place.
If one cries to it, it does not answer
    or save him from his trouble.

⁸ “Remember this and consider,
    recall it to mind, you transgressors,
⁹     remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
    I am God, and there is none like me,
¹⁰ declaring the end from the beginning
    and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
    and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
¹¹ calling a bird of prey from the east,
    the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
    I have purposed, and I will do it.

¹² “Hearken to me, you stubborn of heart,
    you who are far from deliverance:
¹³ I bring near my deliverance, it is not far off,
    and my salvation will not tarry;
I will put salvation in Zion,
    for Israel my glory.”