While The Gods Of The Nations Have To Be Borne By Man And Beast, Yahweh Himself In Contrast Bears His People (Isaiah 46:3-7).
“Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
Who have been borne by me from the belly,
Who have been carried from the womb.
And even to old age, I am He,
And even to grey hairs will I carry you,
I have made and I will bear,
Yes, I will carry and will deliver.”
In contrast with the ignominious situation of the gods of Babylon who have to be borne away on the backs of beasts or on carts, for His own people, God is the One Who Himself does the bearing. Those who have survived of Jacob/Israel after the Assyrian transportation of Israel and the subsequent massacres in Judah, and who are true to Him, have been ‘borne' by Him from belly to birth, and through life until old age. He has made them and He will bear them, and what is more, in carrying them He will deliver them (as the Babylonian gods were even unable to do for the beasts who bore them). So Yahweh is the great Bearer of His people, and Himself never has to be carried. And He both carries and delivers His people.
“To whom will you liken me, and make me equal,
And compare me that we may be similar?
Such as lavish gold out of the bag,
And weigh silver in the balance,
They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god,
They fall down, yes, they worship.
They bear him on the shoulder, they carry him,
And set him in his place and he stands there,
He will not remove from his place,
Yes, one will cry to him, yet he cannot answer,
Nor save him out of his trouble.”
God wants all idols to be put firmly in their place. He asks contemptuously to whom they will liken Him and whom they will count as His equal, and put on a par with Him. Surely not the silver and gold image, made into a god by the goldsmith, who has to be carried everywhere and when set down stays exactly where he is put. And when someone cries to him he can neither answer nor deliver them out of trouble. For whatever they may claim, that is the fact of the matter. Will they really compare Him to Babylon and its idols, when all they are is a burden to their worshippers?