supernatural
Bel
בֵּל
Bel, a Babylonian god mentioned in Isaiah 46:1 and Jeremiah 50:2; 51:44), is associated with the god Marduk and is depicted as bowing down and being humiliated by the Lord.
- verses
- 3
- first named
- Isaiah 46:1
- last named
- Jeremiah 51:44
Description
Bel in the text
Bel is a Babylonian god mentioned in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The name "Bel" is derived from the Semitic word "baal," meaning "lord" or "master." In Babylonian mythology, Bel was associated with the god Marduk, the patron deity of the city of Babylon.
In Isaiah 46:1, Bel is mentioned alongside Nebo, another Babylonian god. The prophet declares that these gods will bow down and be carried into captivity, emphasizing their powerlessness and the futility of trusting in them.
Jeremiah also prophesies against Bel in the context of the fall of Babylon. In Jeremiah 50:2, the prophet proclaims that Bel will be put to shame and that his images will be shattered. This prophecy indicates the destruction of Babylon and the defeat of its gods.
Furthermore, in Jeremiah 51:44, the Lord declares that He will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. This imagery suggests that the Lord will force Bel to release the nations and peoples that Babylon had conquered and oppressed.
The biblical references to Bel serve to emphasize the supremacy of the Lord over the gods of the nations and to demonstrate the inevitable downfall of those who trust in false deities. The prophetic messages against Bel are part of the broader theme of God's judgment against the pride and idolatry of Babylon.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
Stands in the same events as
- Babylon1 event
The pattern
Where Bel is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
3 verses across 2 of 66 books; 64 write the name nowhere. Named in Isaiah (1) and Jeremiah (2).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 3, across 2 books.
Onward
Where this page goes
Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Sources