Isaiah 46 · a question people ask
Who are Bel and Nebo?
The chapter names them and says only this: they bow and stoop (46:1-2), "Their idols are carried by animals" (46:1), and "They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity" (46:2). The Hebrew Bible names Bel twice more, both times in Jeremiah and with Babylon: "Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed!" (Jeremiah 50:2), and "I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon" (Jeremiah 51:44). Nebo is also the name of a place in Moab in Isaiah 15:2, "Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba" (Isaiah 15:2), and of the mountain Moses climbed, "Mount Nebo" (Deuteronomy 34:1); Brown-Driver-Briggs lists the Nebo of 46:1 apart from those, as "Babylonian god". These notes add no history of either, and apply neither to anyone or anything today. The chapter on Isaiah 45 follows the verb of "to me every knee shall bow" (45:23) to "Bel bows down" (46:1) (tap bow down).
The verses
“Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary. They stoop and they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden, but they have gone into captivity.”
““Declare among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don’t conceal; say, ‘Babylon has been taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed! Her images are disappointed. Her idols are dismayed.’”
“I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall.”
“They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off.”