In Isaiah, chapter forty-one, verse six, “They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.” Alliances among nations would not stop the advance of Cyrus as the instrument of God’s purpose. However, the “alliances among the nations” were idolatrous nations that formed confederations to strengthen each other and to oppose him whom God had raised to subdue them.
The prophet describes a state of general consternation existing among them, when they supposed that all was in danger and that their security consisted only in confederation. In increased attention to their religion, in repairing their idols and making new ones, and in conciliating the favor and securing the aid of their gods. It was natural for them to suppose that the calamities which were coming upon them by the invasion of Cyrus were the judgments of their gods, for some neglect, or some prevailing crimes, and that their favor could be secured only by a more diligent attention to their service, and by forming new images and establishing them in the proper places of worship. The prophet, therefore, describes the consternation, the alarm, and the haste, everywhere apparent among them, in attempting to conciliate the favor of their idols, and to encourage each other.
Nothing is more common than for people, when they are in danger, to give great attention to religion, though they may greatly neglect or despise it when they are in safety. Men fly to temples and churches and altars in the times of plague and the pestilence, and as regularly flee from them when the calamity is overpast. If a person believes in their deity, they should have a close relationship. And not just when there is trouble in their lives, they come for help. Then something is wrong.