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They bear him upon the shoulder - and set him in his place - This is the way in which the Hindoos carry their gods; and indeed so exact a picture is this of the idolatrous procession of this people, that the prophet might almost be supposed to have been sitting among the Hindoos when he delivered this prophecy. - Ward'S Customs.
Pindar has treated with a just and very elegant ridicule the work of the statuary even in comparison with his own poetry, from this circumstance of its being fixed to a certain station. "The friends of Pytheas," says the Scholiast, "came to the poet, desiring him to write an ode on his victory. Pindar demanded three drachms, (minae, I suppose it should be), for the ode. No, say they, we can have a brazen statue for that money, which will be better than a poem. However, changing their minds afterwards, they came and offered him what he had demanded." This gave him the hint of the following ingenious esordium of his ode: -
Ουκ ανδριαντοποιος ειμ '
Ὡστ ' ελινυσσοντα μ ' εργαζε -σθαι αγαλματ ' επ ' αυτας βαθμιδοςπ
ἙσταοτΑλλ ' επι πασαςπ
Ὁλκαδος εν τ ' ακατῳ γλυκει ' αοιδαπ
Στειχ ' απ ' Αιγινας διαγγελ -
lois' ὁτι Λαμπωνος ὑιοςπ
Πυθεας ευρυσθενηςπ
Νικῃ Νεμειοις παγκρατιου στεφανον.
Nem. v.
Thus elegantly translated by Mr. Francis in a note to Hor. Carm. 4:2. 19.
"It is not mine with forming hand
To bid a lifeless image stand
For ever on its base:
But fly, my verses, and proclaim
To distant realms, with deathless fame,
That Pytheas conquered in the rapid race."
Jeremiah, Jeremiah 10:3-5, seems to be indebted to Isaiah for most of the following passage: -
"The practices of the people are altogether vanity:
For they cut down a tree from the forest;
The work of the artificer's hand with the axe;
With silver and with gold it is adorned;
With nails and with hammers it is fastened, that it may not totter.
Like the palm-tree they stand stiff, and cannot speak;
They are carried about, for they cannot go:
Fear them not, for they cannot do harm;
Neither is it in them to do good."
They bear him upon the shoulder - They carry the idol which they have made on their shoulder to the temple, or place where it is to be fixed. This circumstance, with the others, is doubtless introduced to show how ridiculous and absurd it was to offer divine homage to a god whom they could thus carry about on the shoulder.
And set him in his place - Fix the idol on its basis or pedestal, in its proper niche, or place in the temple. The whole design of this verse is to contrast the idol with Yahweh. Yahweh is uncreated and eternal; the idol, on the contrary, is made by human beings, is borne about, is fixed in its place, has no power to move, remains there until it is taken down, and has no ability either to hear or save those who worship it.