Bel Bows Nebo Stoops —

Under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah draws a distinction between dead idols and the Living God when he writes, “Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity.” (Isaiah 46:1-2) This passage refers to two principal Babylonian gods who would not be able to save them from God’s impending judgment: Bel and Nebo.
Fun Fact: The medieval rabbi Rashi translated Isaiah 46:1 as “Bel squats; Nebo spoils himself” in order to ridicule them. “He sees the “deities of Bavel [Babylon] squatting and soiling their garments, thus revealing the absurdity of idol worship.”
Bel
Most scholars think that Bel’s name is “equivalent to the Canaanite term ba‘al, meaning “lord” or “master,” and was applied to Marduk, chief god of Babylon.” Also mentioned in Jeremiah 50:2 and Jeremiah 51:44, Bel was symbolized by a horned cap which is very common amongst Assyrian monuments. As per custom, people were often named after this god. In fact, when the prophet Daniel was taken captive by the Babylonians they gave him the name Bel-teshazzar (Dan 1:7; 2:26; 4:8, 9, 18, 19; 5:12; 10:1). Also, the Babylonian king Belshazzar was named after this false god (Dan 5:1, 2, 9, 12, 22, 29, 30; 7:1; 8:1).
Nebo
As for Nebo, he was apparently supposed to be “the son of Marduk and god of wisdom and writing.” As the 19th century reverend James Freeman noted, “Nebo was the last in order of the planetary gods of the Chaldeans, and was also worshiped by the Babylonians and the Assyrians, and by the Sabians in Arabia. He is supposed to have been of Babylonian origin. He corresponds to the Latin Mercury, the Greek Hermes, and the Egyptian-Thoth. The name is supposed to be derived from nabah, [meaning] to prophesy, and the office of this deity was that of interpreter for the gods. His symbol was a simple wedge or arrow-head. The same word (Tir) among the ancient Persians signified both “arrow-head” and the name of the planet nearest the sun, Mercury. The popularity of this god is seen in the combination of his name with the names of ancient kings: for example, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, Nebuhashban, Nabonedus, Nabonassar, Naburianus, Naboilabus, Nabopolassar.” ,
With much pomp, “The Babylonian king led these idols in Babylon’s New Year’s procession from Marduk’s temple, along Babylon’s Processional Way, through the Ishtar Gate, ending at another temple. The ceremony celebrated Marduk’s supremacy and promised blessing on the country.” But God was about to bring judgment upon Babylon for capturing Judah, and the Babylonian idols would not be able to save them. Indeed, in Isaiah 46:1 “Israel’s God promises that Bel and Nebo will go into exile just as Babylon had sent the Judeans into exile.”
According to an earlier Isaiah prophecy, God will use Persia as His tool of judgment. Interestingly, in Isaiah 45:1, some 200 years before King Cyrus was ever born, God calls this Persian monarch out by name and anoints him as His chosen instrument of destruction. From a religious standpoint this makes perfect sense because “though the Persians worshiped the sun, the moon, and the earth, images of gods were entirely unknown among them. Herodotus says of them, “They have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly” (Book 1, chap. 131). Thus it was in perfect accordance with their own customs that the Persians should destroy the graven images of other nations.”
And this prophecy occurred precisely as Isaiah had said it would. According to extra-Biblical historical records, “Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian in October 539 BC.” The Bible also records the fulfilment of this prophecy in Daniel 5. As God declares of Himself in Isaiah 46:9-10, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’”