Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 51:17
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, [and] wrung [them] out.
17 20. The description of Jerusalem’s degradation. The rhythm is that of the qnah, and the resemblances to the book of Lamentations are so striking that Ewald has conjectured that the passage is taken from one of the elegies composed during the Exile.
Awake ] Better Arouse thee (Cheyne); the verb being a reflexive as distinct from the simple “Awake” of Isa 52:1 (and Isa 51:9).
which hast drunk the cup of his fury ] The image of the cup of the Divine wrath originated in Jeremiah’s great vision of judgement (ch. Jer 25:15 ff.), where the prophet hands the cup to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. Cf. also Jer 49:12; Hab 2:16; Eze 23:31-34; Lam 4:21; Oba 1:16; Rev 14:10.
the dregs of the cup of trembling ] R.V. the bowl of the cup of staggering. “Dregs” is a mistaken Jewish rendering of a word ( qubba‘ath), found only here and in Isa 51:22. It means undoubtedly a “bowl” or “chalice,” and the pleonasm “bowl of the cup” has probably arisen through the common word for cup being added as an explanatory gloss.
of trembling ] of intoxication. Psa 60:3 (A.V. “wine of astonishment”).
and wrung them out ] drained (cf. Eze 23:34) an asyndetic construction in the Hebr. “hast drunk, hast drained,” i.e. “hast drunk to the dregs.” The whole clause reads:
Thou who hast drunk from Jehovah’s hand the cup of His wrath, The chalice of intoxication hast thou drunk to the dregs.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Isa 51:17 to Isa 52:12. The Lord will turn the Captivity of Zion
The three oracles into which this passage naturally falls are these: (1) Isa 51:17-23. The prophet, returning to the thought with which the book opens (ch. Isa 40:2), announces that the period of Jerusalem’s degradation has expired. The city is figured as a woman lying prostrate and senseless, intoxicated with the cup of the Lord’s indignation which she has drunk to the dregs, her sons unable to help her (17 20). But the cup is now taken from her and passed to the enemies who had oppressed and insulted her (21 23).
(2) Isa 52:1-6. In a new apostrophe, the image is carried on; let Zion lay aside her soiled raiment, and the emblems of her slavery, and put on her holiday attire (1, 2). Jehovah will no longer endure that His name should be blasphemed through the banishment of His people (3 6).
(3) Isa 51:7-12. A description of the triumphal return of Jehovah to Zion, obviously based on the last section of the Prologue (ch. Isa 40:9-11). The writer pictures the scene of joy within the city when the heralds of the King arrive (7, 8); he calls on the waste places of Jerusalem to break forth into singing (9, 10); and finally, turning to the exiles (as in Isa 48:20 f.) he summons them to hasten their escape from the land of their captivity (11, 12).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Awake, awake – (See the notes at Isa 51:9). This verse commences an address to Jerusalem under a new figure or image. The figure employed is that of a man who has been overcome by the cup of the wrath of Yahweh, that had produced the same effect as inebriation. Jerusalem had reeled and fallen prostrate. There had been none to sustain her, and she had sunk to the dust. Calamities of the most appalling kind had come upon her, and she is now called on to arouse from this condition, and to recover her former splendor and power.
Which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord – The wrath of Yahweh is not unfrequently compared to a cup producing intoxication. The reason is, that it produces a similar effect. It prostrates the strength, and makes the subject of it reel, stagger, and fall. In like manner, all calamities are represented under the image of a cup that is drunk, producing a prostrating effect on the frame. Thus the Saviour says, The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? (Joh 18:11; compare Mat 20:22-23; Mat 26:39, Mat 26:42). The effects of drinking the cup of Gods displeasure are often beautifully set forth. Thus, in Psa 75:8 :
In the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and the wine is red;
It is full of a mixed liquor, and he poureth out of the same,
Verily the dregs thereof all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.
Plato, as referred to by Lowth, has an idea resembling this. Suppose, says he, God had given to men a medicating potion inducing fear; so that the more anyone should drink of it, so much the more miserable he should find himself at every draught, and become fearful of everything present and future; and at last, though the most courageous of people, should become totally possessed by fear; and afterward, having slept off the effects of it, should become himself again. A similar image is used by Homer (Iliad, xvi. 527ff), where he places two vessels at the threshold of Jupiter, one of good, the other of evil. He gives to some a mixed potion of each; to others from the evil vessel only, and these are completely miserable:
Two urns by Joves high throne have ever stood
The source of evil one, and one of good;
From thence the cup of mortal man he fills,
Blessings to these; to those distributes ills.
To most he mingles both: The wretch decreed
To taste the bad unmixd, is cursd indeed;
Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven,
He wanders, outcast by both earth and heaven:
The happiest taste not happiness sincere,
But find the cordial draught is dashd with care.
But nowhere is this image handled with greater force and sublimity than in this passage of Isaiah. Jerusalem is here represented as staggering under the effects of it; she reels and falls; none assist her from where she might expect aid; not one of them is able to support her. All her sons had fainted and become powerless Isa 51:20; they were lying prostrate at the head of every street, like a bull taken in a net, struggling in vain to rend it, and to extricate himself. Jehovahs wrath had produced complete and total prostration throughout the whole city.
Thou hast drunken the dregs – Gesenius renders this, The goblet cup. But the common view taken of the passage is, that it means that the cup had been drunk to the dregs. All the intoxicating liquor had been poured off. They had entirely exhausted the cup of the wrath of God. Similar language occurs in Rev 14:10 : The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of his indignation. The idea of the dregs is taken from the fact that, among the ancients, various substances, as honey, dates, etc., were put into wine, in order to produce the intoxicating quality in the highest degree. The sediment of course would remain at the bottom of the cask or cup when the wine was poured off. Homer, who lived about a thousand years before Christ, and whose descriptions are always regarded as exact accounts of the customs in his time, frequently mentions potent drugs as being mixed with wines. In the Odyssey (iv. 220), he tells us that Helen prepared for Telemachus and his companions a beverage which was highly stupefactive, and soothing to his mind. To produce these qualities, he says that she threw into the wine drugs which were:
–
Nepenthes t’ alochon te kakon epilethon apanton –
Grief-assuaging, rage-allaying, and the oblivious antidote for every species of misfortune. Such mixtures were common among the Hebrews. It is possible that John Rev 14:10 refers to such a mixture of the simple juice of the grape with intoxicating drugs when he uses the expression implying a seeming contradiction, kekerasmenou akratou – (mixed, unmixed wine) – rendered in our version, poured out without mixture. The reference is rather to the pure juice of the grape mixed, or mingled with intoxicating drugs.
The cup of trembling – The cup producing trembling, or intoxication (compare Jer 25:15; Jer 49:12; Jer 51:7; Lam 4:21; Hab 2:16; Eze 23:31-33). The same figure occurs often in the Arabic poets (see Gesenius Commentary zu. Isa. in loc.)
And wrung them out – ( matsiym). This properly means, to suck out; that is, they had as it were sucked off all the liquid from the dregs.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 51:17
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem
Brighter time for exiled Israel:
Jerusalem is pictured as a woman, prostrate through misfortune, lying helplessly as though drunken, on the roadside, her sons unable to guide or assist her: but she is to stand up; the past is now solemnly reversed.
; and the cup of reeling which she has drunk is to be given to them that afflicted her (Isa 51:17-23). (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
A call to abandon despair
It is a call to awake, not so much out of the sleep of sin (though that also is necessary, in order to their being ready for deliverance), as out of the stupor of despair. (M. Henry.)
The cup of trembling.
The cup of trembling
Such a cup is sooner or later placed in all our hands. Some may ask us, indeed, if Christianity is not a religion of joy? Yes! But it is not a religion of hilarity. The Christian life is the reproduction of the Masters image in the world! And as He was the Man of Sorrows, so beneath all there will be tribulation in our hearts, even when we share the legacy of the Masters joy! The cup must be taken. The red wine is poured out by the good hand, and the child with bowed knee and bruised heart says, Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight. Good in the sight which sees the end from the beginning, which culminates in the ultimate issues of glory and reward.
I. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESENT LIFE CREATES A SPIRIT OF TREMBLING. We are in a world of instability and uncertainty. Tremendous possibilities are involved in our daily lives. Health is so soon undermined. Disaster so suddenly comes. This life needs indeed a Brother and a Saviour. There must be with the Christian an element of sobriety in all human joys.
II. THE ALL-SURROUNDING PRESENCE OF TEMPTATION CREATES A SPIRIT OF TREMBLING. Vain self-confidence is contemptible.
III. THE LAW OF DEPENDENCE ON OTHERS CREATES A SPIRIT OF TREMBLING.
1. Illness comes, and we are dependent on the wisdom of the physician and the watchfulness of the nurse; great risk comes, and we are dependent on the command of the captain and the sobriety of the crew; or we need the safety of the wisest jurisprudence, and we are dependent on the carefulness of the lawyer and the skill of the counsel.
2. Or we have to take care of others. Wives and children who may presently be alone in the world–alone where there is such eager competition and self-concern, such neglect of the weakest and the neediest; and we must leave our simple savings to directors or to others who may mismanage our affairs, or to trustees who may be false to their trust. And who shall say that this is not to many anxious parents a cup of trembling!
3. Then we are citizens–men who have vast interest in all that appertains to the life and honour of the fatherland; and all these, representatively, we have to leave in the hands of men, who may through pride or ambition risk the nation s highest weal.
4. Then we are living souls, dependent on the great law of moral influence around us to a much greater extent than we think. And we cannot altogether escape from the contagion of the fashion of this present world.
IV. THE NEAR APPROACH OF THE GREAT ACCOUNT CREATES A SPIRIT OF TREMBLING. Have you ever thought how nearness affects you? Disease in a near city–in your city–m your street–next door to your house!
Have you ever thought how even the judgment of earth, as it comes nearer and nearer, affects the indifference of the criminal? But I am supposing that we are Christians. We have an account to render of lifes stewardship. Into each of our hands God has placed the cup of personality, responsibility and accountability; and now, after a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. This is no mere figure of speech.
V. THE SEASON OF SUBMISSION TO THE DIVINE WILL CREATES A SPIRIT OF TREMBLING. We can in no sense ever feel this as Christ our Lord and Master did. But though in this He stands alone, His whole earthly history was a spectacle of submission. Every man must bear his own burden, must drink his own cup. But Christs comfort is ours! With trembling heart we seek the quiet pavilion of our Father. Better anything than a God-emptied life. Christ our Brother and Saviour alone can succour us in hours of submission. (W. M. Statham.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. The cup of trembling] cos hattarelah, “the cup of mortal poison,” veneni mortiferi. – MONTAN. This may also allude to the ancient custom of taking off criminals by a cup of poison. Socrates is well known to have been sentenced by the Areopagus to drink a cup of the juice of hemlock, which occasioned his death. See Clarke on Heb 2:9, and see also Bishop Lowth’s note on Isa 51:21.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Awake; either,
1. Out of the sleep of security. Or,
2. Out of the sleep of death. Heb. Rouse up thyself; come out of that forlorn and disconsolate condition in which thou hast so long been. This sense suits best with the following words. Stand up upon thy feet, O thou who hast fallen, and been thrown down to the ground.
Which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; which hast been sorely afflicted; for so this metaphor is used. Psa 75:8; Jer 25:15, &c.; Jer 49:12.
The cup of trembling; which striketh him that drinketh it with a deadly horror.
Wrung them out; drunk every drop of, it. See Poole “Psa 75:8“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. Awake, awake, stand up, OJerusalem, c. (Isa 52:1).
drunkJehovah’s wrathis compared to an intoxicating draught because it confounds thesufferer under it, and makes him fall (Job 21:20Psa 60:3; Psa 75:8;Jer 25:15; Jer 25:16;Jer 49:12; Zec 12:2;Rev 14:10); (“poured outwithout mixture”; rather, “the pure wine juice mixed withintoxicating drugs”).
of tremblingwhichproduced trembling or intoxication.
wrung . . . outdrainedthe last drop out; the dregs were the sediments from varioussubstances, as honey, dates, and drugs, put into the wine to increasethe strength and sweetness.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem,…. As persons out of a sleep, or out of a stupor, or even out of the sleep of death; for this respects a more glorious state of the church, the Jerusalem, the mother of us all, after great afflictions; and especially if it respects the more glorious state of all on earth, signified by the New Jerusalem, that will be preceded by the resurrection of the dead, called the first resurrection, when the saints will awake out of the dust of the earth, and stand upon their feet; see Da 12:2, though the last glorious state of the church, in the spiritual reign of Christ, is also expressed by the rising of the witnesses slain, by their standing on their feet, and by their ascension to heaven, Re 11:11, before which will be a time of great affliction to the church, as here:
which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; it is no unusual thing in Scripture for the judgments of God, upon a nation and people, or on particular persons, to be signified by a cup, and especially on wicked men, as the effect of divine wrath,
Ps 11:6. Here it signifies that judgment that begins at the house and church of God, 1Pe 4:17, which looks as if it arose from the wrath and fury of an incensed God: and though it may greatly intend the wrathful persecutions of men, yet since they are by the permission and will of God, and are bounded and limited by him, they are called “his cup”, and said to come from his hand; and the people of God take them, or consider them as coming by his appointment:
thou hast drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out; alluding to excessive drinking, which brings a trembling of limbs, and sometimes paralytic disorders on men, and to the thick sediments in the bottom of the cup, which are fixed there, as the word u signifies, and are not easily got out, and yet every drop and every dreg are drunk up; signifying, that the whole portion of sufferings, allotted to the Lord’s people, shall come upon them, even what are most disagreeable to them, and shall fill them with trembling and astonishment.
u “crassamentum”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vitringa.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Just as we found above, that the exclamation “awake” ( ur ), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another “awake” ( hithor e r ), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. “Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out. There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There were two things that happened to thee; who should console thee? Devastation, and ruin, and famine, and the sword: how should I comfort thee? Thy children were benighted, lay at the corners of all the streets like a snared antelope: as those who were full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hearken to this, O wretched and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God that defendeth His people, Behold, I take out of thine hand the goblet of reeling, the goblet cup of my fury: thou shalt not continue to drink it any more. And I put it into the hand of thy tormentors; who said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou madest thy back like the ground, and like a public way for those who go over it.” In Isa 51:17, Jerusalem is regarded as a woman lying on the ground in the sleep of faintness and stupefaction. She has been obliged to drink, for her punishment, the goblet filled with the fury of the wrath of God, the goblet which throws those who drink it into unconscious reeling; and this goblet, which is called qubbaath kos ( , a genitive construction, though appositional in sense), for the purpose of giving greater prominence to its swelling sides, she has not only had to drink, but to drain quite clean (cf., Psa 75:9, and more especially Eze 23:32-34). Observe the plaintive falling of the tone in shathth m atsth . In this state of unconscious stupefaction was Jerusalem lying, without any help on the part of her children; there was not one who came to guide the stupefied one, or took her by the hand to lift her up. The consciousness of the punishment that their sins had deserved, and the greatness of the sufferings that the punishment had brought, pressed so heavily upon all the members of the congregation, that not one of them showed the requisite cheerfulness and strength to rise up on her behalf, so as to make her fate at any rate tolerable to her, and ward off the worst calamities. What elegiac music we have here in the deep cadences: m ikkol – banm yaladah , m ikkol – banm giddelah ! So terrible was her calamity, that no one ventured to break the silence of the terror, or give expression to their sympathy. Even the prophet, humanly speaking, is obliged to exclaim, “How ( m , literally as who, as in Amo 7:2, Amo 7:5) should I comfort thee!” He knew of no equal or greater calamity, to which he could point Jerusalem, according to the principle which experience confirms, solamen miseris socios habuisse malorum . This is the real explanation, according to Lam 2:13, though we must not therefore take m as an accusative = b e m , as Hitzig does. The whole of the group is in the tone of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. There were two kinds of things (i.e., two kinds of evils: m ishpachoth , as in Jer 15:3) that had happened to her ( = , with which it is used interchangeably even in the Pentateuch) – namely, the devastation and ruin of their city and their land, famine and the sword to her children, their inhabitants.
In Isa 51:20 this is depicted with special reference to the famine. Her children were veiled ( ullaph , deliquium pati , lit., obvelari ), and lay in a state of unconsciousness like corpses at the corner of every street, where this horrible spectacle presented itself on every hand. They lay k e tho’ m ikhmar (rendered strangely and with very bad taste in the lxx, viz., like a half-cooked turnip; but given correctly by Jerome, sicut oryx , as in the lxx at Deu 14:5, illaqueatus ), i.e., like a netted antelope (see at Job 39:9), i.e., one that has been taken in a hunter’s net and lies there exhausted, after having almost strangled itself by ineffectual attempts to release itself. The appositional , which refers to , gives as a quippe qui the reason for all this suffering. It is the punishment decreed by God, which has pierced their very heart, and got them completely in its power. This clause assigning the reason, shows that the expression “thy children” ( banayikh ) is not to be taken here in the same manner as in Lam 2:11-12; Lam 4:3-4, viz., as referring to children in distinction from adults; the subject is a general one, as in Isa 5:25. With lakhen (therefore, Isa 51:21) the address turns from the picture of sufferings to the promise, in the view of which the cry was uttered, in Isa 51:17, to awake and arise. Therefore, viz., because she had endured the full measure of God’s wrath, she is to hear what His mercy, that has now begun to move, purposes to do. The connecting form sh e khurath stands here, according to Ges. 116, 1, notwithstanding the (epexegetical) Vav which comes between. We may see from Isa 29:9 how thoroughly this “drunk, but not with wine,” is in Isaiah’s own style (from this distinction between a higher and lower sphere of related facts, compare Isa 47:14; Isa 48:10). The intensive plural ‘adonm is only applied to human lords in other places in the book of Isaiah; but in this passage, in which Jerusalem is described as a woman, it is used once of Jehovah. Yarbh ammo is an attributive clause, signifying “who conducts the cause of His people,” i.e., their advocate or defender. He takes the goblet of reeling and wrath, which Jerusalem has emptied, for ever out of her hand, and forces it newly filled upon her tormentors. There is no ground whatever for reading (from , to throw down, related to , whence comes , a precipitate or sediment) in the place of ( pret. hi. of , ( laborare , dolere ), that favourite word of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lam 1:5, Lam 1:12; Lam 3:32, cf., Isa 1:4), the tone of which we recognise here throughout, as Lowth, Ewald, and Umbreit propose after the Targum . The words attributed to the enemies, sh e ch v e naabhorah (from shachah , the kal of which only occurs here), are to be understood figuratively, as in Psa 129:3. Jerusalem has been obliged to let her children be degraded into the defenceless objects of despotic tyranny and caprice, both at home in their own conquered country, and abroad in exile. But the relation is reversed now. Jerusalem is delivered, after having been punished, and the instruments of her punishment are given up to the punishment which their pride deserved.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Jerusalem’s Affliction. | B. C. 706. |
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. 19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? 20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. 21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
God, having awoke for the comfort of his people, here calls upon them to awake, as afterwards, ch. lii. 1. It is a call to awake not so much out of the sleep of sin (though that also is necessary in order to their being ready for deliverance) as out of the stupor of despair. When the inhabitants of Jerusalem were in captivity they, as well as those who remained upon the spot, were so overwhelmed with the sense of their troubles that they had no heart or spirit to mind any thing that tended to their comfort or relief; they were as the disciples in the garden, sleeping for sorrow (Luke xxii. 45), and therefore, when the deliverance came, they are said to have been like those that dream, Ps. cxxxvi. 1. Nay, it is a call to awake, not only from sleep, but from death, like that to the dry bones to live, Ezek. xxxvii. 9. “Awake, and look about thee, that thou mayest see the day of thy deliverance dawn, and mayest be ready to bid it welcome. Recover thy senses; sink not under thy load, but stand up, and bestir thyself for thy own help.” This may be applied to the Jerusalem that was in the apostle’s time, which is said to have been in bondage with her children (Gal. iv. 25), and to have been under the power of a spirit of slumber (Rom. xi. 8); they are called to awake, and mind the things that belonged to their everlasting peace, and then the cup of trembling should be taken out of their hands, peace should be spoken to them, and they should triumph over Satan, who had blinded their eyes and lulled them asleep. Now,
I. It is owned that Jerusalem had long been in a very deplorable condition, and sunk into the depths of misery.
1. She had lain under the tokens of God’s displeasure. He had put into her hand the cup of his fury, that is, her share of his displeasure. The dispensations of his providence concerning her had been such that she had reason to think he was angry with her. She had provoked him to anger most bitterly, and was made to taste the bitter fruits of it. The cup of God’s fury is, and will be, a cup of trembling to all those that have it put into their hands: damned sinners will find it so to eternity. It is said (Ps. lxxv. 8) that the dregs of the cup, the loathsome sediments in the bottom of it, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them; but here Jerusalem, having made herself as the wicked of the earth, is compelled to wring them out and drink them; for wherever there has been a cup of fornication, as there had been in Jerusalem’s hand when she was idolatrous, sooner or later there will be a cup of fury, a cup of trembling. Therefore stand in awe and sin not.
2. Those that should have helped her in her distress failed her, and were either unable or unwilling to help her, as might have been expected, v. 18. She is intoxicated with the cup of God’s fury, and, being so, staggers, and is very unsteady in her counsels and attempts. She knows not what she says or does, much less knows she what to say or do; and, in this unhappy condition, of all the sons that she has brought forth and brought up, that she was borne and educated (and there were many famous ones, for of Zion it was said that this and that man were born there, Ps. lxxxvii. 5), there is none to guide her, none to take her by the hand to keep her either from falling or from shaming herself, to lend either a hand to help her out of her trouble or a tongue to comfort her under it. Think it not strange if wise and good men are disappointed in their children, and have not that succour from them which they expected, but those that were arrows in their hand prove arrows in their heart, when Jerusalem herself has none of all her sons, prince, priest, nor prophet, that has such a sense either of duty or gratitude as to help her when she has most need of help. Thus they complain, Ps. lxxiv. 9. There is none to tell us how long. Now that which aggravated this disappointment was, (1.) That her trouble was very great, and yet there was none to pity or help her: These two things have come unto thee (v. 19), to complete thy desolation and destruction, even the famine and the sword, two sore judgments, and very terrible. Or the two things were the desolation and destruction by which the city was wasted and the famine and sword by which the citizens perished. Or the two things were the trouble itself (made up of desolation, destruction, famine, and sword) and her being helpless, forlorn, and comfortless, under it. “Two sad things indeed, to be in this woeful case, and to have none to pity thee, to sympathize with thee in thy griefs, or to help to bear the burden of thy cares, to have none to comfort thee, by suggesting that to thee which might help to alleviate thy grief or doing that for thee which might help to redress thy grievances.” Or these two things that had come upon Jerusalem are the same with the two things that were afterwards to come upon Babylon (ch. xlvii. 9), loss of children and widowhood–piteous case, and yet, “when thou hast brought it upon thyself by thy own sin and folly, who shall be sorry for thee?–a case that calls for comfort, and yet, when thou art froward under thy trouble, frettest, and makest thyself uneasy, by whom shall I comfort thee?” Those that will not be counselled cannot be helped. (2.) That those who should have been her comforters were their own tormentors (v. 20): They have fainted, as quite dispirited and driven to despair; they have no patience in which to keep possession of their own souls and the enjoyment of themselves, nor any confidence in God’s promise, by which to keep possession of the comfort of that. They throw themselves upon the ground, in vexation at their troubles, and there they lie at the head of all the streets, complaining to all that pass by (Lam. i. 12), pining away for want of necessary food; there they lie like a wild bull in a net, fretting and raging, struggling and pulling, to help themselves, but entangling themselves so much the more, and making their condition the worse by their own passions and discontents. Those that are of a meek and quiet spirit are, under affliction, like a dove in a net, mourning indeed, but silent and patient. Those that are of a froward peevish spirit are like a wild bull in a net, uneasy to themselves, vexatious to their friends, and provoking to their God: They are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of our God. God is angry with them, and contends with them, and they are full of that only, and take no notice of his wise and gracious designs in afflicting them, never enquire wherefore he contends with them, and therefore nothing appears in them but anger at God and quarrelling with him. They are displeased at God for the dispensations of his providence concerning them, and so they do but make bad worse. This had long been Jerusalem’s woeful case, and God took cognizance of it. But,
II. It is promised that Jerusalem’s troubles shall at length come to an end, and be transferred to her persecutors (v. 21): Nevertheless hear this, thou afflicted. It is often the lot of God’s church to be afflicted, and God has always something to say to her then which she will do well to hearken to. “Thou art drunken, not as formerly with wine, not with the intoxicating cup of Babylon’s whoredoms and idolatries, but with the cup of affliction. Know then, for thy comfort,” 1. “That the Lord Jehovah is thy Lord and thy God, for all this.” It is expressed emphatically (v. 22): “Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and thy God–the Lord, who is able to help thee, and has wherewithal to relieve thee,–thy Lord, who has an incontestable right to thee, and will not alienate it,–thy God, in covenant with thee, and who has undertaken to make thee happy.” Whatever the distresses of God’s people may be, he will not disown his relation to them, nor have they lost their interest in him and in his promise. 2. “That he is the God who pleads the cause of his people, as their patron and protector, who takes what is done against them a done against himself.” The cause of God’s people, and of that holy religion which they profess, is a righteous cause, otherwise the righteous God would not appear for it; yet it may for a time be run down, and seem as if it were lost. But God will plead it, either by convincing the consciences or confounding the mischievous projects of those that fight against it. He will plead it by clearing up the equity and excellency of it to the world and by giving success to those that act in defence of it. It is his own cause; he has espoused it, and therefore will plead it with jealousy. 3. That they should shortly take leave of their troubles and bid a final farewell to them: “I will take out of thy hand the cup of trembling, that bitter cup; it shall pass from thee.” Throwing away the cup of trembling will not do, nor saying, “We will not, we cannot, drink it;” but, if we patiently submit, he that put it into out hands will himself take it out of our hands. Nay, it is promised, “Thou shalt no more drink it again. God has let fall his controversy with thee, and will not revive the judgment.” 4. That their persecutors and oppressors should be made to drink of the same bitter cup of which they had drunk so deeply, v. 23. See here, (1.) How insolently they had abused and trampled upon the people of God: They have said to thy soul, to thee, to thy life, Bow down, that we may go over. Nay, they have said it to thy conscience, taking a pride and pleasure in forcing thee to worship idols. Herein the New-Testament Babylon treads in the steps of that old oppressor, tyrannizing over men’s consciences, giving law to them, putting them upon the rack, and compelling them to sinful compliances. Those that set up an infallible head and judge, requiring an implicit faith in his dictates and obedience to his commands, do in effect say to men’s souls, Bow down, that we may go over, and they say it with delight. (2.) How meanly the people of God (having by their sin lost much of their courage and sense of honour) truckled to them: Thou hast laid thy body as the ground. Observe, The oppressors required souls to be subjected to them, that every man should believe and worship just as they would have them. But all they could gain by their threats and violence was that people laid their bodies on the ground; they brought them to an external and hypocritical conformity, but conscience cannot be forced, nor is it mentioned to their praise that they yielded thus far. But observe, (3.) How justly God will reckon with those who have carried it so imperiously towards his people: The cup of trembling shall be put into their hand. Babylon’s case shall be as bad as ever Jerusalem’s was. Daniel’s persecutors shall be thrown into Daniel’s den; let them see how they like it. And the Lord is known by these judgments which he executes.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 17-23: DELIVERANCE AFTER JUDGMENT
1. Here are set forth the effects of that judgment which has come to Israel because of her persistent rebellion against God, (vs. 17-20).
a. Having drained, to the dregs, the cup of the Lord’s fury, Jerusalem is pictured as a drunken woman lying helplessly on the ground, (vs. 17; Jer 25:15-18).
b. Among all her offspring was not found one who offered, or was able, to take her by the hand – lifting her up and guiding her in a safe path (vs. 18; Isa 49:21; comp. Psa 88:18; Psa 142:4).
c. Such devastation and ruin had befallen her, through famine and warfare, that Isaiah, like the weeping Jeremiah, could not really comfort her, (vs. 19; Isa 8:21-22; Isa 9:20-21; Jer 14:17).
d. Her sons, who might be expected to help her, were lying, stunned, at the street corners, as antelopes exhausted in their struggle to escape the hunters’ net – all victims of God’s wrath against sin, (vs. 20; Isa 5:25; Jer 14:16).
e. Thus, the Lord Himself calls upon her to “WAKE UP”! He will help her, (vs. 17a).
2. Deliverance from such a state could come only as an act of divine mercy – which God will bestow, (vs. 21-23).
a. He views them as “afflicted and drunken”, but not with wine, (vs. 21; Isa 54:11; Isa 29:9-10).
b. He remembers that they are but flesh; yet, they are His people; thus, He becomes their Advocate and Defender, (vs. 22a; Isa 49:25-26).
c. He takes out of Israel’s hand the cup of staggering, and bowl of wrath, so that she will need to drink it NO MORE! (vs. 22b; Isa 63:6).
d. It will be given to those who have previously afflicted her; those who have humbled her with their haughtiness will be so humiliated as to become her servants, (vs. 23; Isa 63:6; Jer 25:15-17; Jer 25:26-28; Zec 12:2; Psa 75:7-8).
e. This is still future; it previews the “time of Jacob’s trouble” Jer 30:7; Jer 14:7-9), wherein the “man of sin” will attempt to destroy Israel and “the remnant of her seed” (the church) which has “the testimony of Jesus”, (Rev 12:17).
f. But the Lord always brings His people safely THROUGH THE FIRE of affliction and trouble – TRIUMPHANTLY! (Dan 3:19-30; 1Pe 4:12-14; Rev 2:10-11; Joh 17:15; comp. Rev 3:10).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17. Awake, awake. The Church was about to endure grievous calamities, and therefore he fortifies her by consolation, and meets a doubt which might arise, that the Jews, being now oppressed by tyrants, saw no fulfillment of these promises. The meaning therefore is, that the Church, though afflicted and tossed in various ways, will nevertheless be set up again, so as to regain her full vigor. By the word “Awake” he recalls her, as it were, from death and the grave; as if he had said, that no ruins shall be so dismal, no desolations shall be so horrible, as to be capable of hindering God from effecting this restoration. And this consolation was highly necessary; for when grief seizes our hearts, we think that the promises do not at all belong to us; and therefore we ought frequently to call to remembrance, and to place constantly before our eyes, that it is God who speaks, and who addresses men who are not in a prosperous or flourishing condition, but fallen and dead, and whom notwithstanding he can raise up and uphold by his word; for this doctrine of salvation is intended not for those who retain their original condition, but for those who are dead and ruined.
Who hast drunk from the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath. There are two senses in which the term, “cup of wrath,” may be understood; for sometimes the Lord is said to put into our hands a “cup of wrath,” when he strikes us with some kind of giddiness, or deranges our intellect; as we see that affliction sometimes takes away men’s understanding; but sometimes it is used in a simpler sense, to denote the sharp and heavy punishments by which the Lord severely chastises his people. This is evidently the meaning in which it must be taken here, as appears from the addition of the pronoun His. Nor is this inconsistent with what he says, that the Church was stupified and drunk; for he shews that this happened in consequence of the Lord having severely chastised her. It is an ordinary metaphor by which the chastisement which God inflicts on his people is called a “potion,” (31) or a certain measure which he assigns to each. But whenever it relates to the elect, this term “cup” serves to express the moderation of the divine judgment; that the Lord, though he punish his people severely, still observes a limit. (32)
Pressing out the dregs of the cup of distress (or of trembling.) I consider the word תרעלה (targnelah) to denote “anguish” or “trembling,” by which men are nearly struck dead, when they are weighed down by heavy calamities. Such persons may be called “drunk,” as having exhausted all that is in the cup, because nothing can be added to their affliction and distress.
This is also denoted by another term, “pressing out.” The Church is here reminded that all the evils which befall her proceed from no other source than from the hand of God, that she may not think that they happen to her by chance, or that she is unjustly afflicted. The object which the Prophet has in view is, that the people may know that they are justly punished for their sins. No one can rise up till he first acknowledge that he has fallen, or be delivered from misery till he perceive that it is by his own fault that he is miserable. In short, there can be no room for consolations till they have been preceded by the doctrine of repentance.
Dregs, therefore, must not here be understood in the same sense as in Jer 25:15, where the reprobate are spoken of, whom the Lord chokes and kills by his cup, but as denoting complete and righteous punishment, to which the Lord has been pleased to assign a limit. Thus, when the Lord has inflicted on us such punishment as he thought fit, and puts an end to our afflictions, he declares that the “dregs” are exhausted; as we have seen before at the fortieth chapter. (33)
(31) “He sets forth God like a physician, mixing a bitter potion for Jerusalem, putting as it were into one cup all the anger he had conceived against her, and standing by to see her take it off, that not a drop should be spilt, or any of the nauseous settlings left behind: a potion so strong that it made her tremble every limb of her, and so giddy that she stood in need of one to lead her: but such were her misfortunes that none of her inhabitants were able to support her; by all which the Prophet means that her afflictions should be so great as to turn her brain, and make her sink under the load of them.” — W’hite.
(32) “ Pource qu’il retient son bras.” “Because he restrains his arm.”
(33) The allusion appears to be to a different but analogous expression. See Com. on Isaiah, Vol. 3, pp. 201,202. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
JEHOVAHS ANGER
Isa. 51:17; Isa. 51:20; Isa. 51:22. The fury of the Lord, &c. [1587]
[1587] See vol. i. pp. 284286, and H. E. I. 22882294. Gods anger must, of course, be understood in a manner in accordance with the Divine nature; and we are not to suppose that precisely the same passions or the same feelings are referred to when this language is used of God which is implied when it is used of men. It means that His nature, His laws, His government, His feelings, are all arrayed against the wicked; that He cannot regard the conduct of the wicked with favour; that He will punish them. He is angry with the wicked continually, constantly, always. It is not excitement, it is not a temporary passion, such as we see in men. It is not sudden emotion, soon to be succeeded by a different feeling when the passion passes off. It is the steady and uniform attribute of His unchanging nature to be always opposed to the wicked,to all forms of sin; and in Him, in this respect, there will be no change. The wicked will find Him no more favourable to their character and course of life to-morrow than He is to-day; no more beyond the grave than this side of the tomb. This is a fearful truth in regard to the sinner, and should make him tremble:(1.) that God is angry with himthat all His character, and all the principles of His government and law, are and must be arrayed against him; and (2.), that in this respect there is to be no change; that if he continues to be wicked, as he is now, he will every day and alwaysthis side the grave and beyondfind all the attributes of God engaged against him, and pledged to punish him. God has no attribute that can take part with sin or the sinner.A. Barnes, D.D.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the higher the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course when once it is let loose. If God should only withdraw His hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.Jonathan Edwards.
I. It is real. There is such a thing as anger in God. Many are the expressions used concerning itjealousy, vengeance, fury, wrath; all to indicate its existence, and to show us that the human theories of Divine universal benevolence are not true, being got up for a purpose, and that purpose to persuade the sinners own conscience that he need not be alarmed because of his guilt; and that no one need dread the infliction of punishment, except perhaps a few of the most wicked of our race. But Gods words are not exaggerations, nor words of course. There is a terrible truth contained in these oft-repeated words of Scripture, His anger was kindled. Loving and gracious as Jehovah is, His anger is real. When Jesus comes the second time, He comes to take vengeance.
II. It is righteous. It is not the rage of selfishness, or passion, or affront. It is judicial anger; the anger of the righteous judge. It is anger against sin, against the sinner, anger because of insulted law and dishonoured righteousness. Nothing in it is unjust, or cruel, or arbitrary. Then the condemned soul will be compelled hereafter to say, It is all right and just, it shall be right and just to all eternity.
III. It is terrible. Though calm, it is unutterably awful; nay, overwhelming. No power and no numbers shall be able to stand before it. It shall sweep everything before it like a whirlwind. The expulsion from paradise, the Deluge, the ruin of Sodom, are specimens of its terribleness. The lost soul shall be utterly overwhelmed. ()
IV. It is inexorable. Nothing but genuine repentance shall turn it aside, or soften it when once it is kindled. The vengeance of eternal fire, the everlasting burning, the worm that dieth not, these are awful words, and however figurative they may be, they represent terrible realities (H. E. I. 2804).Horatius Bonar, D.D.: Light and Truth, Old Testament, p. 345.
THE MEMORIAL NAME
Isa. 51:22. Thy LORD the LORD, and thy God.
The history, which includes the textual statement. Consider
1. The character which God here claims for Himself.
1. Independent and self-existent in Being, and thereforeInfinitefills all space; everlastingfills all time; the source of all being.
2. Unlimited in perfection. All perfections. Infinite in each.
3. Unlimited in sovereignty. He does according to His will. His will the highest reason. None can counsel Him.
4. Unlimited in the extent of His government. None are exempted from it.
5. Himself the end of all things. Everything originates with Him. Everything terminates in Him.
II. The limitations which men put upon the claim which is thus made by God. They put limits upon,
1. His being. The having and worshipping false gods. That is not God which is not self-existent; and two self-existent Gods cannot be conceived.
2. His perfections. The conceptions which men form and express. The preference which man gives to the creature. The silence of man in His praise. The little imitation there is of Him. The manner in which men expect to recommend themselves to His favour. The manner in which His servants are treated.
3. On His absolute sovereignty. Confining our attention to systems of doctrine called Christian, men question Gods absolute sovereignty, in the election, calling, justification, and perseverance of His people.
4. On the extent of His government. Some exclude Him from creation, providence, in prayer, conversation, conduct, civil authority, the government of the Church, and conscience.
5. As the end of all things. Men make themselves the end.
CONCLUSION.He is not, and cannot be limited. In acting, He disregards the limits of men. He punishes the pride and insolence of man for limiting Him. He calls the notice of His people to the vindication of His glory.James Stewart: Outlines of Discourses, pp. 24.
THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE CHURCH
(Preached before a Presbyterian General Assembly.)
Isa. 52:1. Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.
This language is a direct address from God to His ancient Church. The image which it presents is that of a sleeping giant. The Church of God had been a giant power in the world; but at the time in which God speaks it had relapsed into slumberhad put off its strength, and, being beset with enemies, this position of torpor and inaction was one of peril. Hence this arousing note of alarm, Awake, awake! The slumbering giant is not only summoned to arouse to consciousness, but to put on and put forth his strength for conflict and for victory.
The text is a forcible reminder of the mysterious and discouraging fact that the Church of God, in all ages, may have its times of weakness, as well as its times of power. When the Church first went forth from Jerusalem, a little flock, scattered hither and thither by the storm of persecution, it was a time of power. It was then but an infant of days, but it lifted empires off their hinges, and turned the stream of centuries out of its channel.(Richter.)
But a time of weakness followed this era of powerthe dark night of the middle ages. Again there came a time of power when, on the morning of the Reformation, the Church heard the cry, Awake, awake! and, springing up with renewed youth, it put on its strength. The chill of formalism followed the track of the Reformation, and the Church sank into the coma of wide-spread paralysis; a disguised Romanism riveted her fetters; the Socinian apostasy spread its blight over Great Britain. But then came times of power, when the Church arose in quickened majesty; and still again, times of wondrous spiritual revival, when the call sounded by Wesley and Whitefield, like the voice of the prophet in the valley of vision, seemed to awake the dead.
I. Why these periods of weakness? If the Church is a giant begirt with power, and that power is divine; if it is commissioned to exercise the evil spirit from the world, and goes forth with the promise of help and victory, then why these times of weakness? Answer:The power of the Church is divine, but it is also human. What man can do, he must do. To roll away the stone from the grave of Lazarus was something that man could do; hence our Lord commanded human hands to do it. This act of human strength must antecede the word of power which raises the dead. Divine power and human strength must work together, each in its appropriate sphere. Divine efficiency does not supersede human agency, but only supplements its weakness. If mans part in the work or warfare of the Church is properly executed, Gods part will never fail. But, as the terror of the iron chariots of the enemy paralysed the strength of Judahso that, the human part being wanting, the victory was lost (Jdg. 1:19)so, in the Church, if any cause supervenes to weaken, or render ineffective, the strength which God expects us to put forth, He will not depart from His plan, or interpose to save us from the result of our own weakness, or to hide us from the scorn and derision of the world.
II. What is the strength of the Church, and when is it put off?
1. The first element of power is the Gospel. This is the one element for our work, the one weapon for our warfareit is the power of God. The astronomer looks at the heavens. These stars are to be counted; these constellations are to be mapped; the orbits of these planets are to be observed. Here is a vast and complicated work; but how is it to be done? By the telescope. He has this, and nothing else. All the great results of astronomy must spring, first of all, from this single instrument. Just so the Church looks out upon its work. It is commissioned to bring this world in captivity to the obedience of Christ. A mighty and multiform work; how is it to be achieved? By the Gospel. God has given us this, and nothing else, to save the world. It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe. Moses was commanded to smite the rock at Horeb, and bring from its bosom streams of water. How? He was given but one instrumentthe slender rod that he held in his hand. To human view the rock would be more likely to break the rod than the rod to rend the rock; but that fragile rod was Gods ordained instrument of power; and, when it smote, the riven rock gushed with the living waters. Just so, the Word of God is the rod of power. We are commanded to smite with it alone, for by nothing else can the stony heart be broken. For every work which the Church is sent to do, this is the instrument of power.
This being so, we can readily see from this standpoint how this strength may be put off, and power give place to weakness. To neglect, to withhold, to minimise, to obscure in any manner the truth of God, is to put off this element of power, and to bring in a time of weakness.
This may occur
(1.) When the truth is depreciated, or its necessity not clearly recognised. Thus, for example, some say, Preach morality; let us hear more about the duties of life, and less about the doctrines of the Cross. Morality, without principle, is a sham; it is tinselled fruit tied upon a Christmas-treethe only connection is the tape that ties it. Morality is the fruit of principle, but principle is doctrineand the only doctrine that bears this fruit is the doctrine of the Cross.
(2.) Whenever the Gospel is subordinated to human themes. If the Church dispenses essays upon history, antiquities, philosophy, politics, science, or reflects the light of the secular press, &c., it will be no marvel if it sinks into imbecility.
(3.) Our strength is crippled when the Gospel is caricatured by sensational themes, discussions, illustrations and expedients, which attract attention, indeed, but which belittle the sacred doctrine of the Cross.
But whilst causes like these paralyse our power, there are others which produce simply an abatement of strength. For example, the Church can only put forth half its strength when the Gospel is but half told. If it sets out in full light the Divine love, whilst it keeps back Divine justice under the shadow of a dark eclipse; if it tells of Christs teachings, and is silent about Christs sacrifice; if it points to Christs life, and not to Christs blood, as the centre of saving efficiency; if it sets out the freedom of man, and holds in abeyance Divine sovereignty and efficacious grace; or if it minimises the Gospel in the one sentence, Come to Jesus; or if it lays Christ as a humble suppliant at the feet of men until proud sinners imagine that it is a stoop of condescension to permit Jesus to save themthen, surely, it is no marvel that men turn away from a belittled Gospel and a belittled Saviour, and that the Church sits in weakness.
2. The second element is the ministry. Let us not lose sight of the figure of the text. The Church is a giant; the Gospel is the instrument of his workthe weapon of his warfare. But what wields the weapon? The giants armthis is the ministry. It is the arm or the agent of the Churchs power. The symbol of the Gospel is a hammer, a word; but a hammer is powerless without a strong hand to use it; the sword is ineffective without a skilful arm to wield it. This arm, this sword, this agent of strength and skill, is the ministry.
This figure seems to describe accurately the kind of power with which the ministry is invested. It is not an original power inherent in itself, but a delegated power. It is the power of an agent, and it has an instrument of power put into its hands. It is not a power to infuse grace, or to forgive sins, or to bind the conscience, but simply an administrative power. It is a power of vocation to utter the Gospel call, to summon Gods sons from afar, and His daughters from the ends of the earth. A teaching powergo teach all nations; preach the Gospel to every creature. A dispensing power to break the Bread of Life, and to distribute, with a liberal hand, to all Gods children, giving to each a portion in due season. A power to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.
We may readily see when this strength is put on, and when it is put off. Whatever cripples or weakens or interferes with the right use and proper functions of a giants arm, weakens and abates the effectiveness of the giant himself; so whatever weakens the ministry, or hinders its effectiveness, puts off to that extent the strength of the Church, and introduces a time of weakness and defeat.
(1.) The ministry, as an arm of power, may be withered by a perfunctory education. Ministers may be taught to know about God, but not to know God. They may learn to explain and defend the Gospel, without having ever felt that a single Gospel truth has been riveted as a living, burning power in their own souls. A minister who knows what it is to be a saved sinner, can tell of it with such power as to make others feel that there is nothing between them and eternal death but the blood of Jesus. But, without this experience, the minister will be a perfunctory drone, stepping in a treadmill, or doing out his lifeless essay whilst sinners are slipping through his fingers into perdition.
(2.) The ministry must be a source of weakness instead of power to the Church, if it is not in sympathy with the hearts of the people, and the souls of perishing men. He who was once lost but is found again, will know how to feel for the lost, and the lost will listen to him who once was lost himself. This is the natural power of the minister, the link of sympathy that binds him to the hearts of the people and the souls of men. If this be lost the ministry is powerless.
3. The third and principal element of the Churchs power is the Holy Ghost. The implement of the Churchs work is the Word; the arm of the Churchs power is the ministry; but the power itself is the Holy Ghost. As He causeth the earth to bring forth and bud by showers from heaven, so He causes His Church to abound in the fruits of righteousness by times of refreshing from on high. A revival is a day of the Spirits power, when the enemy is repulsed; when sinners are made willing; when doubt and unbelief are dissipated. If such a day of power were granted to us now, you would see rationalism, scepticism, and infidelity driven like smoke before the wind.
III. Such being the elements of the Churchs power, and the causes which convert its strength into weakness, let us now listen to Gods call to the Church to put on and put forth her strength. Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion! An army puts on its strength when it goes forth to battle, but this is strength to destroy. A fireman puts on his strength when he enters a burning dwelling, and plucks its sleeping inmates from the flames. This is strength to save. Oh, it is a glorious thing to put on strength to save! How, then, shall we put on this strength?
Physical strength is put on in one way, and spiritual strength in another. Some seem to imagine that they have only to arouse and stir themselves into an agony of effort. Samson arose and shook himself, and thought he would go forth and smite the Philistines, as aforetime; but, alas! the strength was not thereit had departed from him. So the Church may shake herself and advance to the conflict, but the strength is not there; the Philistines are upon her, and she wists not that the Lord has departed. This is not the way! One who is physically strong is conscious of his strength, but one who is spiritually strong is conscious of nothing but weakness. Spiritual power, in its first element, is the sense of our own weakness.
No man ever puts on spiritual strength except on his knees. It was there that the apostles found it. When Peter stood forth and preached to the multitude, that day of Pentecost was a day of power; it was the Spirits power; but how did the apostles put it on? Upon their knees; in those days of prayer, in the upper chamber in Jerusalem. It is upon our knees that the Church must put on its strength! Then shall our work be mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.W. M. Paxton, D.D.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
c.
TORMENTORS JUDGED
TEXT: Isa. 51:17-23
17
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath; thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
18
There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she hath brought up.
19
These two things are befallen thee; who shall bemoan thee? desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort thee?
20
Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.
21
Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
22
thus saith thy Lord Jehovah, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23
and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, that have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou hast laid thy back as the ground, and as the street, to them that go over.
QUERIES
a.
When did Jerusalem drink the cup of Jehovahs wrath?
b.
Why was there none to guide her among her sons?
c.
Who made her bown down and where did they go over?
PARAPHRASE
Attention! Be alert, Zion! You will soon drink of the cup of Jehovahs punishment. You will have drained every drop; you will have been made to reel under your punishment. You must now decide what course you shall take. You cannot depend on any of this generation of Israelites to take spiritual leadership of Zion. None of them are capable of stopping the desolation and destruction that is coming upon you. Starvation and war and captivity is coming and how will I, Jehovah, save you? Your young men, in whom you hope for leadership, have collapsed everywhere from spiritual and moral weakness. They are as helpless as deer caught in a hunters net. They shall feel the full force of the Lords wrath. On account of this, you suffering people of Zion, you shall reel under the Lords punishment but the Lord your God will defend you. You can believe this: I will take the cup of staggering punishment out of your hand. You will not drink from My wrath-filled cup again when I comfort you through My Servant. I will put that cup of judgment in the hand of your tormentors. Those who have forced Zion to surrender to the chains of captivity and those who have oppressed and trampled her, body and soul, into the dustthey shall stagger under My judgment.
COMMENTS
Isa. 51:17-20 STAGGERED: Again, this is Servant-centered. And again, we have the prophet predicting the captivity of Zion, her release, and out of that the ultimate comforting of Jehovah in the coming Servant. Jerusalem (Zion) is roused to wakefulness to prepare herself for the coming cup of Gods wrath (cf. Jer. 25:15-29; Eze. 23:31-35); Zion will drink the whole cup Jehovah has for herexile into a pagan land. Her walls and her temple will be leveled to the ground by a pagan people. The sacred vessels will be desecrated and carried away. Her people will be marched away in chains like slaves. They will be utterly cut off from Jehovah without a temple or a priesthood, unable to offer sacrifices or be ritually cleansed. This would be staggering to a Jew. The religious-psychological-moral shock would be more staggering than the physical suffering. People can endure great physical privation when they know they are not suffering the disfavor of God.
Zion is to learn something from this cup of staggering. She is to alert herself to the fact that only Jehovah can deliver her from the fix she has gotten herself into. None of Jerusalems wise old men could rescue her from the consequences of her sins. None of Jerusalems bright young men had the capability to step forward and deliver her from the coming ruin. In fact, those who were capable of leadership had become so self-centered and cynical they did not even want to become involved with civic mindedness (cf. Isa. 3:6-12; Isa. 4:1, etc.). Jerusalem is headed for desolation, destruction, starvation and slaughter; who will rescue the remnant of Zion? Jehovah asks the rhetorical question, How shall I comfort thee? If there are no sons of Jerusalem through whom Jehovah may work, what shall be the instrument of His salvation? All the sons of Jerusalem are as helpless as the antelope caught in the hunters net. The Hebrew word toa is translated oryx (Gr.) in the LXX and wild bull in the KJV. It is probably the dorcas gazelle, common to Syria, Palestine and Arabia, or the oryx beatrix (Arabian oryx). The Hebrew root word, thaah, means literally, to outrun, thus signifying the antelope-gazelle animal which is extremely fast but physically weak. The men Jerusalem expected to be leaders and deliverers will become victims like everyone else. They too have drunk the cup of the Lords wrath dry. They have imbibed of the same heady wine of rebellion and moral corruption in which the populace has indulged. Now they will all stagger and reel. How shall Zion be delivered?
Isa. 51:21-23 SAVED: The word therefore is meant to be understood, on account of this . . . On account of Zions inability to save herself, Jehovah will plead her case. (the Hebrew word riyv is a term of the court; cf. Isa. 45:9; Isa. 49:25; Isa. 50:8). When the proper time comes, Jehovah the judge will discontinue Zions punishment and give the cup she was drinking into the hand of her enemies. Undoubtedly this refers initially to the deliverance from Babylonian exile. This great event is predicted over and over by Isaiah (and other prophets). It will begin in the days of Cyrus, ruler of the Persian empire. But almost always, wherever the return from the captivity is predicted, it is pointed to as the initial step in a glorious program of redemption which shall culminate in the messianic age. Jehovah certainly did not literally take away Jerusalems cup of staggering with the return from exile. Jerusalem suffered severe physical warfare under the Seleucids and the Romans (predicted in Daniel). There are two possible interpretations of the phrase thou shalt no more drink it again: (a) The removal of the cup was to be conditional. Jerusalem would never stagger again after the captivity as long as she remained true to Jehovah. She did not remain true as evidenced by Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, and as evidenced by her murdering of the Messiah, so Jerusalem was given the cup of staggering again; or (b) the promise is to Zion, the true Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above (pre-eminent, cf. Gal. 4:26), the messianic kingdom, the church. The true people of God, the born-again kingdom, shall never suffer being cut off from the presence of God as were the Jews of the exile. The N.T. church will always have its one and only sacrifice (the Lamb of God). It shall always have its sanctuary in the heavens and its Eternal High Priest. Of course it may suffer trial and tribulation in the physical sense here on earth; but it shall always enjoy the favor of God. The cup of staggering is taken from the hand of Gods true Israel by the atoning death of the Servant. He became a curse for us (cf. Gal. 3:10-14), and delivered all who submitted to the rule of God in Christ from the wrath of God that is to come upon the sons of disobedience (Eph. 2:1-22). The cup of staggering is put into the hand of Babylon (humanity opposed to God) and it shall reel and fall under the wrath of God (Rev. 16:19; Rev. 17:6; Rev. 18:4-8). God will accomplish all this through the Suffering Servant and for the new Zion (the N.T. church and the O.T. saints who believed which form the one great Mt. Zion pictured in Heb. 11:22-29). And thus we approach the climactic chapter of Isaiahs entire workchapter 53the Suffering Servant. But first the transition-chapter, chapter 52. Actually, Isa. 52:1-12 serves as the transition from generalities concerning the Servant to particulars, and Isa. 52:13 to Isa. 53:12 detail the specifics concerning the Servant.
The Babylonians afflicted the souls as well as the bodies of the Jewish exiles. They humiliated them, taunting them about the whereabouts of their God, Jehovah; they took their sacred vessels and priests and desecrated them in their pagan country; they forced many of them to perform pagan, idolatrous rituals. They were tortured psychologically as well as being punished physically. We should probably understand the commanded bow down as figurative. However, certain Assyrian monuments show vanquished prisoners literally bowing down or lying down on the ground while the conquerors walked on their bodies.
QUIZ
1.
How does the cup of staggering relate to the coming messianic age?
2.
What would stagger Zion the most?
3.
What is Zion to learn from this?
4.
What does the word therefore in Isa. 51:21 indicate?
5.
Give the two possible interpretations of thou shalt no more drink it again.
6.
Were the people of Jerusalem literally walked on?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(17) Awake . . .The words present a strange parallelism to Isa. 51:9. There they were addressed to the arm of Jehovah, and were the prelude of a glorious promise. Here they are spoken to Jerusalem as a drunken and desperate castaway, and introduce a painfully vivid picture of her desolation. They seem, indeed, prefixed to that picture to make it bearable. They are a call to Zion to wake out of that drunken sleep, and therefore show that her ruin is not irretrievable.
The dregs of the cup.Literally, the goblet cup, but with the sense, as in the Authorised version, of the cup being drained.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Awake, awake Earnest address to Jerusalem under a new image, that of a man reeling as an inebriate. The city now is deeply stupified from drinking of the wrath of God, a retribution due to all nations who defy and abandon Jehovah.
Stand up Her punishment is just, but on repentance she may be restored. The vision of Zion just given is in strange contrast. She is now arrayed in robes of peace, and desires reinstatement in her old home. The cup of wrath is a common figure. Psa 75:9; Jer 25:15; Jer 25:17; Jer 25:28; Eze 23:31. The word dregs is now generally held to mean cup or bowl.
Trembling Rather, reeling, as through intoxication.
Wrung out Better, sucked out to the last drop.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Second Call To Awake – Spoken to Distressed Jerusalem ( Isa 51:17-23 ).
These words are spoken in view of Yahweh’s previous ‘awaking’ (Isa 51:9) and are to stir up Israel to respond, having drunk sufficiently of God’s anger against their sins. Again it is followed by a word of assurance and promise from Yahweh. He will remove that which is causing her distress and her dreadful condition, and will pass it over to her enemies.
Isa 51:17
‘Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem,
Who has drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his fury.
You have drunk the bowl of the cup of staggering,
And have drained it.’
Their position is first stated. They (represented as Jerusalem) had been under His wrath and made to drink of the cup of His fury, the cup that had rendered them helpless and unable to cope for themselves, so that they have staggered and collapsed. But now they have drunk it and drunk it to the full, so that His anger against their sin is over. The cup represents all the historical events that have come on them leaving them destitute and helpless, the consequence of God’s anger over the continual sin and rebellion that had finally become too much. ‘The cup of staggering’ does not just refer to being drunk, but to having come to such a drunken state that is impossible to recover. They have reached the final stages of delirium.
We can contrast the Lady Babylon on her throne, who was dragged down to her dreadful state (chapter 47) without hope, with this drunken helpless woman who is to be dragged up from her dreadful state by God’s rescue mission. When Babylon drags men and women down, God can lift them up again. God’s power works both ways.
So now they are to ‘stand up’. Note that while Yahweh’s arm was to ‘put on strength’ on awakening (Isa 51:9), all that is required of Jerusalem is that they ‘stand up’, that they stagger to their feet. All that is required is that they stand and see the salvation of Yahweh. Yahweh will do the rest.
The picture is vivid, Jerusalem slumped like a dishevelled woman by the wayside, drunk, prone and helpless, and now being exhorted to pull themselves together and stand up because God is about to act. For without God her situation is hopeless as we will now see.
Isa 51:18-20
‘There is none to guide her among all the sons that she has borne,
Neither is there any who takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.
These two things are befallen you, who will bemoan you?
Desolation and destruction, even the famine and the sword.
How shall I comfort you? Yours sons have fainted.
They lie at the top of all the streets, like an antelope in a net.
They are full of the fury of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.’
But what hope is there for her if she stands up? There is no one to take her by the hand and lead her. She has had many sons, the people of Jerusalem and Judah, those who had claimed that they were the people of God, but they cannot help her. For they themselves have fainted away, having become hopeless drunkards, and having collapsed at the road heads, unable to get home. They are like an antelope caught in a net, thrashing about and not free to do anything, a permanent victim with no hope of recovery. For they too are under the heavy hand of Yahweh because of their sins, they are still surfeited with Yahweh’s fury, God’s rebuke.
And she has faced two things, desolation and destruction in terms of dire famine and sword (no mention of exile). This is what has actually caused her state, continual bouts of famine and invasion. But there is none to bemoan her for they are all taken up with their own deep problems. With her sons in the condition that they are, how is God to comfort her?
The aim is to demonstrate how totally helpless she is, so that from an earthly point of view God can find her no comfort. Her position is totally hopeless. What on earth can she do? The answer is, nothing.
However, there is an answer, and God will provide it. But before that answer is produced the truth must be out.
Isa 51:21
“Therefore hear now this, you afflicted and drunken, but not with wine.”
Here is the truth of the matter. Her drunkenness is not due to wine, it is due to that which has brought on them God’s wrath and rebuke, His fierce anger (Isa 51:20). It is due to sin. It is due to an oversurfeit of wickedness and rebellion against God. And it results in their not being aware of Yahweh’s words (Isa 29:9-10). This is why no one can help her, for her sins are too deep-dyed.
Isa 51:22
“Thus says the Lord Yahweh,
And your God, who pleads the cause of his people.
See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering,
Even the bowl of the cup of my fury.
You will no more drink it again.
And I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
Who have said to your inner heart, ‘Bow down that we may go over’.
And you have laid your back as the ground,
And as the street to those who go over.”
Indeed her full humiliation is now described. As a drunken woman in the street those who had afflicted her had taunted her and told her to lie there while they walked all over her, and she had done as she was bidden. She had become the lowest of the low, the drunken plaything of drunkards. Everyone walked over her. This scene of a misused, drunken woman is played out in many drinking places around the world. It is a sign of the world’s sinfulness.
But now Yahweh steps in, the One Who makes the plea for the cause of His people, their judge. He will take the cup from her hand, the cup that is causing her all the trouble, and give it to those who afflict her. She will be released from her problem, and it will be laid on others. She has Yahweh’s promise that she will be made free. It remains for the next verses to reveal how this will come about.
‘The Lord Yahweh.’ Unusually, in this phrase ‘Lord’ is in the plural. Perhaps the idea is to bring out that He is not only her Sovereign Lord, but also her ‘lord’ as her husband or parent (Isa 54:5) He is acknowledging responsibility for her. Or it may be placing great stress on Lord, a plural of intensity.
We note here a typical Isaianic reversal. In Isa 51:17 it was ‘the cup of His fury — the bowl of the cup of staggering’, here it is ‘the cup of staggering — the bowl of the cup of His fury.’ Fury begins and ends the situation, resulting in the staggering.
‘You will no more drink it again.’ Isaiah thus has the final everlasting kingdom in mind. The cup will then be given to those who take part in the final judgment.
Who then is Jerusalem in this sad picture? As with all illustrations we must not press too closely. In one sense it is all Israel, for all will be welcomed if they come. Certainly they are all drunk and have drunk of the cup of His fury. But in the finality it is those who will respond and will come to Yahweh, and listen to the voice of His Servant. It is only they who can be sure that the cup of Yahweh’s fury has been taken from them. It is only they who can stand rightly and recover to walk again. And certainly it is they who are spoken of in the next verses. It is the holy seed who come from the remnant who are left (Isa 6:13).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 51:17. From hence to the 61st chapter, follows the third and most extensive discourse, in which the state of the church, from the times of the Maccabees, but particularly of Jesus Christ and his kingdom, is foretold, to the end of the world; yet so, that in describing the corrupt times of the church, (which is done in Isaiah 56-58) the depraved state of the church, which preceded the times of the Maccabees, is alluded to, and the phrases frequently taken from thence. The whole discourse may be divided into nine sections. The first, which is preparatory, is contained in ch. Isa 51:17 and ch. 52. The second in ch. 53; the third in ch. 54; the fourth in ch. 55; the fifth in 56; the sixth in 57; the seventh in 58 and Isa 59:15; the eighth in Isa 59:16-21.; the ninth in ch. 60: The occasion of the prophesy is taken from the preceding discourse, ch. Isa 49:1 wherein the mystery of the humiliation of the Messiah, his exaltation, and the calling of the Gentiles, being proposed, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to take this occasion to speak of that mystery more at large; for it was of consequence to the church to have the events of the new oeconomy described, as in a picture, from its first beginning to its consummation; particularly to have clearly set forth, and preserved in the treasures of the prophetic word, the doctrine concerning the most bitter passion of the Messiah, the grand foundation of salvation, that there might not be left any objection for incredulity. This section may be divided into four parts, according to the four scenical periods observable in it. The first apostrophe is directed to the church, wherein it is commanded to raise itself up from its state of affliction; and here, first, the afflictions which the church had sustained are enumerated, Isa 51:17,20; secondly, deliverance is promised from these evils, and leverage upon her enemies, Isa 51:21-23. The second apostrophe is directed to the same church, about the time of the approach of the Messiah’s kingdom; wherein she is ordered to put on dress, to adorn herself agreeably to the state of an oeconomy of grace and liberty, ch. Isa 52:1-2. Secondly, the occasion of that exhortation or command is delivered; namely, the approaching redemption of the church, Isa 51:3. Thirdly, the reason of that command, and of the necessity of redemption, is explained from the condition of the church, detained a long time in captivity and servitude, corporal as well as spiritual, but now to be delivered by their God present with them, Isa 51:4-6. Next follows an exclamation of a prophetical or evangelical chorus; wherein is set forth the greatness and excellence of the blessing of the Gospel, to be promulgated through the whole world, by preachers appointed for that purpose: and here we have the exclamation itself, Isa 51:7-8 and an address to the renewed church, exhorting it to joy on account of this benefit, Isa 51:9-10. The third apostrophe is directed to the preachers of the Gospel; wherein, first, they are animated and excited to undertake this expedition, and are instructed concerning the manner of undertaking it, Isa 51:11-12; secondly, the basis and foundation of the kingdom of God, to be established among the Jews and Gentiles, is laid down; namely, the obedience unto death of the Messiah to his Father amidst the greater sufferings, and the exaltation which should follow it, Isa 51:13-15.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 51:17-20. Awake, &c. Rouse, rouse,cup of reeling, and drained them out: Isa 51:18. There is none to lead her along among all the sons, &c.: Isa 51:19. Those two things are come unto thee, (who can sufficiently lament thee?) desolation and destruction; even famine and sword: How shall I comfort thee! Isa 51:20. Thy sons have fainted away: they lie, &c. as a stag in a net. Vitringa supposes that the ancient church, delivered from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, and which was in immediate expectation of the kingdom of the Messiah, is here addressed. He describes this church figuratively, as intoxicated to the highest degree of stupidity by her enemies; compelled to drink the very dregs of the cup, that none of the wine might be lost; and at last left, more like a dead person than a living one, in the street, to be trodden upon by all, and her very sons, by whom she ought to be carried home, and refreshed with water, lying drunken also in the street, Isa 51:20. It is very plain that the Christian church cannot be here addressed, because the afflictions here specified were those of anger and punishment. See Act 2:13; Act 2:15.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
How very beautiful and gracious is this! It seems as if the Lord would answer his people in their own words. The church had called upon him to awake; and now the Lord bids Jerusalem to rouse up herself, in his strength. The Lord puts her in remembrance how she had been exercised, and had tasted of the gall and the wormwood; but now, in redemption by Christ, she shall drink of it no more. And as a poor fretful sinner, until relieved by the redemption of Jesus, is entangled and unable to get free, like a bull in a net; so when the Son hath made the sinner free, he then is free indeed! Oh! the misery of sin! Oh! the rich salvation of Jesus! God be praised for his unspeakable gift! Joh 8:36 ; 2Co 9:15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, [and] wrung [them] out.
Ver. 17. Awake, awake. ] Suscita te, suscita te. As the Church had stirred up the arm of the Lord to awake, Isa 51:9 so here he doth the Church, cheering her up, and, as it were, drinking to her in a cup of nepenthe, after her bitter cup of gall and aloes, which she had drunk to drunkenness, and had none to guide her, Isa 51:18 as a drunken man had need to have.
That hast drunk at the hand of the Lord.
The cup of his fury.
Thou hast drunk the dregs.
Of the cup of trembling.
a Illud tantrum bibunt quod est suavius et limpidius; est propemodum proverbialis locutio “bibere calicem,” pro eo quod est perferre adversa. – Hyper.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 51:17-20
17Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem,
You who have drunk from the LORD’S hand the cup of His anger;
The chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs.
18There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne,
Nor is there one to take her by the hand among all the sons she has reared.
19These two things have befallen you;
Who will mourn for you?
The devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
How shall I comfort you?
20Your sons have fainted,
They lie helpless at the head of every street,
Like an antelope in a net,
Full of the wrath of the LORD,
The rebuke of your God.
Isa 51:17-20 YHWH is encouraging His people to shake off His finished judgment and prepare to return to Jerusalem!
Isa 51:17 Rouse yourself! Rouse yourself! Arise, O Jerusalem These are three IMPERATIVES in a row for emphasis.
1. rouse – Hithpolel or Hithpael (BDB 734, KB 802)
2. repeated
3. arise – Qal (BDB 877, KB 1086)
the cup. . .the chalice These two are parallel and refer to the idiom of judgment as a cup of strong drink to make one stagger and fall (cf. Isa 29:9; Isa 63:6; Job 21:20; Psa 60:3; Psa 75:8; Jer 25:15-16; Lam 4:21; Eze 23:32-34). Also note its usage in the NT.
1. of Jesus as sin bearer – Mat 20:22; Mat 26:38-42; Mar 14:36; Luk 22:42; Joh 18:11
2. worshipers of the beast – Rev 14:10; Rev 16:19; Rev 19:15
Isa 51:19 Notice what has happened to the covenant people and now is happening to Babylon.
1. devastation (BDB 994)
2. destruction (BDB 991)
3. famine (BDB 944)
4. sword (BDB 352)
There is no one to comfort Babylon; there is One to comfort Abraham’s seed (cf. Isa 51:3; Isa 51:12; Isa 40:1).
Isa 51:20 When Assyria and Babylon invaded a town they killed the old, young, and powerful at a prominently visible location (i.e., the head of every street). Now this evil act is being done to them.
Awake = Rouse thee. Not the same form as in Isa 51:9 with Isa 52:1.
Isa 51:17-20
Isa 51:17-20
“Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath; thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. There is none to guide her among all the sons who she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she hath brought forth. These two things are befallen thee: who shall bemoan thee? desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword; how shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.”
What a sad picture of God’s people is presented here. The old Jerusalem is depicted as a drunken woman staggering about with an empty cup; the reason it is empty is that she has drunk it all; none of her sons can help her; all of them are also drunk, lying around on every street, and that is the reason they are unable to help their stricken mother in her pitiful humiliation.
This picture of the drunken sons of the chosen people, drunken not on wine, but upon their rebellion and apostasy from God, is presented in the metaphor of an antelope (some translate `wild bull’ or `oryx’). Many have been impressed with the elegance and poetic excellence of these lines. The antelope, or gazelle, is among the swiftest and most graceful of animals; and the spectacle of one entangled in a net is tragic and pitiful indeed. Such was the status of the Old Israel as described here.
It would appear that some have misunderstood the meaning of the “two things are befallen thee” in Isa 51:19. Douglas, for example, has this! “These two things are befallen her, which branch out into four, namely, desolation, destruction, famine, and sword. The text indeed may seem to say this; but we believe Lowth’s explanation is better. He declared the meaning to be: “Desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword, taking the terms alternately, of which there are other examples in the Bible.
Isa 51:17-20 STAGGERED: Again, this is Servant-centered. And again, we have the prophet predicting the captivity of Zion, her release, and out of that the ultimate comforting of Jehovah in the coming Servant. Jerusalem (Zion) is roused to wakefulness to prepare herself for the coming cup of Gods wrath (cf. Jer 25:15-29; Eze 23:31-35); Zion will drink the whole cup Jehovah has for her-exile into a pagan land. Her walls and her temple will be leveled to the ground by a pagan people. The sacred vessels will be desecrated and carried away. Her people will be marched away in chains like slaves. They will be utterly cut off from Jehovah without a temple or a priesthood, unable to offer sacrifices or be ritually cleansed. This would be staggering to a Jew. The religious-psychological-moral shock would be more staggering than the physical suffering. People can endure great physical privation when they know they are not suffering the disfavor of God.
Zion is to learn something from this cup of staggering. She is to alert herself to the fact that only Jehovah can deliver her from the fix she has gotten herself into. None of Jerusalems wise old men could rescue her from the consequences of her sins. None of Jerusalems bright young men had the capability to step forward and deliver her from the coming ruin. In fact, those who were capable of leadership had become so self-centered and cynical they did not even want to become involved with civic mindedness (cf. Isa 3:6-12; Isa 4:1, etc.). Jerusalem is headed for desolation, destruction, starvation and slaughter; who will rescue the remnant of Zion? Jehovah asks the rhetorical question, How shall I comfort thee? If there are no sons of Jerusalem through whom Jehovah may work, what shall be the instrument of His salvation? All the sons of Jerusalem are as helpless as the antelope caught in the hunters net. The Hebrew word toa is translated oryx (Gr.) in the LXX and wild bull in the KJV. It is probably the dorcas gazelle, common to Syria, Palestine and Arabia, or the oryx beatrix (Arabian oryx). The Hebrew root word, thaah, means literally, to outrun, thus signifying the antelope-gazelle animal which is extremely fast but physically weak. The men Jerusalem expected to be leaders and deliverers will become victims like everyone else. They too have drunk the cup of the Lords wrath dry. They have imbibed of the same heady wine of rebellion and moral corruption in which the populace has indulged. Now they will all stagger and reel. How shall Zion be delivered?
awake: Isa 51:9, Isa 52:1, Isa 60:1, Isa 60:2, Jdg 5:12, 1Co 15:34, Eph 5:14
which hast: Deu 28:28, Deu 28:34, Job 21:20, Psa 11:6, Psa 60:3, Psa 75:8, Psa 75:10, Jer 25:15-17, Jer 25:27, Eze 23:31-34, Zec 12:2, Rev 14:10, Rev 18:6
Reciprocal: Deu 28:65 – the Lord Pro 3:1 – let Isa 26:19 – Awake Isa 49:21 – am desolate Isa 51:20 – full Isa 51:22 – I have Isa 54:11 – thou afflicted Jer 4:4 – lest Jer 13:13 – I will Jer 25:18 – Jerusalem Jer 44:6 – my fury Jer 48:26 – ye him Lam 2:4 – he poured Lam 3:15 – filled Eze 23:32 – drink Eze 23:33 – with the cup of astonishment Eze 23:34 – drink Amo 5:2 – none Nah 1:2 – is furious Luk 22:42 – cup Rev 16:19 – in
It is worthy of note that in the passage before us there are three calls to hearken and three to awake. Those called upon to hearken in the early part of the chapter – verses Isa 51:1, Isa 51:4, Isa 51:7 – are those who “follow after righteousness… that seek the Lord;” those acknowledged as “My people;” and those, “that know righteousness… in whose heart is My law.” The emphasis clearly is on righteousness, for nothing that contravenes that is going to stand.
The first call to awake is addressed to the “Arm of the Lord.” (Verse Isa 51:9), for all is dependent upon Him. When the hour strikes for Him to awake and put on strength, there will be witnessed the awakening of Jerusalem, as indicated in verse Isa 51:17, and again in the first verse of Isa 52:1-15. The awakening that will come to pass will not be merely a political or national one, but will rather involve a deep spiritual work, as is made plain when chapter 52 is reached. It will come to pass only when Jerusalem shall have suffered to the full the chastising government of God, having drunk to the dregs the cup of His fury and of their trembling.
So first of all, in the closing verses of Isa 51:1-23, we get a recital of the effect of these disciplinary dealings, and then the declaration of how God will reverse the process, and chastise those who inflicted judgment upon Israel. But there will have been not only the sword of their enemies afflicting them but also famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction they are depicted as “drunken,” but it is added, “not with wine.” When the Arm of the Lord awakes on their behalf, the hour of their deliverance will strike, and the “cup of trembling” be taken out of their hands and put into the hands of their oppressors.
Then it is that Zion and Jerusalem not only will awake but also will put on strength, as the first verse of chapter 52 says. The language is figurative but quite clear in its import. At last holiness will mark the city and all that defiles be outside. It will be like a resurrection from the dust of death, and a release from the bands of captivity. They had sold themselves by their idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by it. Now they are to know redemption, but not by a money payment, as was customary in the days of slavery. The price of their redemption is unfolded when we come to Isa 53:1-12.
In verse Isa 51:4, Egypt and Assyria are mentioned. In Dan 11:1-45, these are referred to as “the king of the south,” and “the king of the north,” and at the present time these two powers are coming into prominence. They are noted by God, and from them Israel will be redeemed; but only when the prediction of verse Isa 51:6 comes to pass.
When owned as “My people,” they will have come really to know Jehovah. He will present Himself to them as, “I am He… behold it is I.” Darby’s New Translation informs us that we have here the same expression as in chapter Isa 41:4, and it might be translated, “I the Same.” All their long centuries of sin and defection have not altered His nature and character in the slightest degree. What He was to them at the outset, that He is to them still.
They will discover too that the Messiah, whom they crucified, is “the SAME, yesterday, and today, and for ever;” and then the glorious tidings of verse Isa 51:7 will be announced. To Zion it will be said, “Thy God reigneth,” and in the light of the New Testament we well know the Person in the Godhead who will actually ascend the throne. Then at last there will be the peace, the good, the salvation, of which this verse speaks. The feet of him who shall herald such news will be beautiful indeed. As Christians we know these things already in a spiritual way, and the heavenly regions, rather than Jerusalem and its mountains, are our place But though that is so, let us rejoice in the coming deliverance of Zion, and the beauty of the One who is going to accomplish it.
The verses that follow state the happy effects that will be seen when in the Person of the once rejected Messiah God is reigning in Zion. Watchmen usually lift up the voice to warn but now it will be to sing, and moreover there will be no disharmony for they will agree in what they see. And indeed the joyful song will be universal, breaking forth even in “waste places of Jerusalem.” It will be a song based upon the redemption wrought for them by the Lord.
It is remarkable how throughout the Scriptures singing is recorded as the response to redemption. Though songs are mentioned as something that might have taken place, in Gen 31:27, the first actual record of singing is in Exo 15:1-27, when Israel had been redeemed out of Egypt Then in Psa 22:1-31, where the death of Christ for our redemption is prophesied, the first result mentioned is a song, though the word does not actually occur in the Psalm. It does occur however in Heb 2:12, where the Psalm is quoted. Again, just after the verses before us, we get the wonderful prophecy of the death of Christ in Isa 53:1-12; and the very first word of Isa 54:1-17 is, “Sing.”
In verse Isa 51:9 of Isa 51:1-23, the Arm of the Lord was called upon to awake: in verse Isa 51:10 of our chapter it has awakened, and the mighty effect of the awakening has been unveiled in the eyes of all the nations. Not only Israel but all men will see the salvation of God come to pass.
Verses Isa 51:11-12 stand by themselves and reveal another effect of this great work of God. Hitherto defilement had marked the people, whether personal or caused by lack of separation from defiling things. The double cry of “Depart,” indicates urgency. Neither Israel nor we, who are Christians, are to traffic in unholy things. Separation is essential, for as Tit 2:14 tells us, Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” This we have to learn, and Israel too will learn it in the coming day.
And if they or we should feel that to depart thus from iniquity is sure to cost us much, we need nevertheless have no fear about it. In our passage verse Isa 51:12 gives Israel the needed assurance. God will be their Defender, and cover their rear as they depart from the evil. A similar assurance is given to us in 2Co 6:17, 2Co 6:18, where God in His Almightiness and Majesty declares He will own as His sons and daughters the saints who are separate from the world and its evils.
With verse Isa 51:13 there begins the central chapter of the last 27. As before pointed out, the 27 divide into three sections of 9 chapters; each section ending with solemn judgment upon the wicked – (Isa 48:22; Isa 57:21; Isa 66:24). In this central chapter of the central section we reach the supreme height of the prophecy, and are at once confronted with one of the greatest of the Divine paradoxes, since at the same time we touch the deepest depths, into which the Messiah descended for our sakes.
In Isa 49:1-26 Jehovah’s Servant was presented as apparently failing in His mission to Israel, and yet glorious in the eyes of God. Now His public exaltation and glory are declared, since He has acted with such great prudence, or wisdom; and in 1Co 1:23, 1Co 1:24, we are told that “Christ crucified” is not only the power but also “the wisdom of God.” His exaltation shall be definitely related to His previous humiliation. “As many were astonished” at the depth of His suffering and degradation; “So… the kings shall shut their mouths at Him,” silent and ashamed. Some translate “astonish” instead of “sprinkle.” If, however the word “sprinkle” be retained, we should connect it with the use of that word in Eze 36:25, where it clearly has the force of an act of blessing toward Israel.
The general force of these three verses that conclude our Isa 52:1-15, is perfectly clear. This meek and lowly Servant of Jehovah, who descended to such unheard of depths of humiliation, is going to come forth in a power and splendour that will astonish all mankind. His exaltation in the heights shall be commensurate with the depths into which He went. Now, who believes that?
This is exactly the question with which Isa 53:1-12 opens. This being the prophetic report; who believes it? And further; who recognizes that the suffering Servant and the glorious Arm of Jehovah are one and the same Person? We must underline in our minds the last word of verse Isa 51:1, for we should never have discerned it had not a revelation been made. A parallel thought occurs in Mat 16:17, where Peter’s recognition and confession of Christ as “the Son of the living God,” was declared by our Lord to be the fruit of revelation from the Father. That revelation – whether we express it as given in Isaiah or in Matthew – has come, we trust, to every one of our readers, and a thrilling revelation it is. The chapter proceeds to show that the rejection and death of the humbled Servant does not in any way contradict the predictions of His coming glory as the Arm of the Lord, but is rather the great foundation on which it is securely based.
Verse Isa 51:2 presents Him to us in two ways. First, as He was in the eyes of God. Mankind in general, and Israel in particular, had proved themselves to be “dry ground,” quite unproductive of anything that was good; yet out of this there sprang up this “tender plant,” which drew its life and nourishment from elsewhere. The Lord Jesus truly sprang out of Israel, through the Virgin Mary His mother, but the excellence of His holy Manhood was due not to her but to the action of the Holy Spirit of God.
But second, He is presented as He was in the eyes of men. He had “no form nor lordliness,” (New Trans.), nor the kind of beauty that men admire and desire. Some haughty, imperious man of imposing appearance would have caught the popular fancy; but instead of this He was “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” as verse Isa 51:3 says. Being who He was, such a One as He could not be otherwise, as He entered and walked through a ruined creation with all its degradation and woe. This men did not understand, since they were insensible to their own degradation, and consequently they despised and rejected Him, as the prophet here predicts.
How do we Christians go through the world today? Let us challenge our hearts. The world today is in principle what it was then. Here and there more polish may be seen on the surface, but on the other hand the population of the earth has increased enormously, and so its miseries have multiplied. Hence, as the Apostle has told us, “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom 8:22), and we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, are involved in it and groan within ourselves. Now groans are the expression of sorrow. He, who today most largely enters into heaven’s joys, will most keenly feel earth’s sorrows.
The language here is remarkable. The prophet is led to predict the rejection of Christ in words that will express the feelings of a godly remnant of Israel in the last days, when Zec 12:10-14, is fulfilled. Then they will say, “we hid as it were our faces from Him… we esteemed Him not.” Identifying themselves with the sin of their “forefathers, they will confess, not that the forefathers did it, but that we did it. This will be a genuine repentance.
Moreover their eyes will be opened to see the real meaning of His death, as verses Isa 51:4-5 show. In the days of His flesh men observed His sorrows and His grief, and deduced from them that He was disapproved of God and therefore afflicted by Him. Now the real truth of it all bursts upon their hearts. They will discover what has been revealed to us, as recorded in the Gospel: He exerted His miraculous power with such sympathetic effect in the healing of men’s bodies, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Mat 8:17).
But if verse Isa 51:4 is their confession of the truth concerning His wonderful life of sympathetic and sorrowful service, verse Isa 51:5 gives the confession they will make as the true meaning of His death dawns upon them. They discover that He died as a Substitute, and it was even for themselves. This discovery we all make today as we believe the Gospel. The word, substitution does not occur in this verse, but the truth that word expresses does occur four times in this one verse, and it occurs ten times in this one chapter.
Now here is a remarkable fact: – as printed in our English Bibles, verse Isa 51:5 is the central verse of this chapter, which really begins with verse Isa 51:13 of Isa 52:1-15 It is therefore the central verse of the central chapter of the central section, of this latter part of Isaiah. And without a doubt it predicts truth which is absolutely central to our soul’s salvation, and in our soul’s experience. The transgressions, the iniquities were mine, each of us has to say, but the wounding, the bruising were not mine but His. The peace, the healing are mine, but the chastisement, the stripes that procured them, were not mine but His. In all this He was my Substitute.
This thought is again emphasised in verse Isa 51:6, and it is made plain that His substitutionary work was the fruit of an act of Jehovah, for He it was who laid our sins upon Him. In these verses, we must remember, the “we” and the “us” are those who believe, whether ourselves today or the godly remnant of Israel presently. And those who believe are those who have first confessed their sinnership; all going astray like lost sheep, though the way we took may have differed in each case. Sin is lawlessness; the doing of our own will, regardless of God’s will, and the going of our own way independently of Him.
In verses Isa 51:7-9, we have a series of remarkable prophecies, all of which were fulfilled on the very day of our Lord’s death. Indeed it has rightly been pointed out that at least 24 Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in the 24 hours that comprised that day of all days, when the Son of God bowed His head in death.
Verse Isa 51:7 emphasises His silence before His accusers. When men are oppressed and afflicted unjustly, to protest is natural and most usual, so His silence was contrary to all experience, and it is noted in the Gospels – Mat 27:11-14; Mar 15:3, Mar 15:4; Luk 23:9; Joh 19:9. Truly a sheep is dumb before the shearers, as anyone may observe today if they stand and watch the shearers at work, but He was not like a sheep being sheared but rather like a lamb led to the slaughter. He was indeed “the Lamb of God,” as John the Baptist proclaimed, yet no word of protest escaped His lips.
Then further, “He was taken from prison [oppression] and from judgment,” for it is still what men did to Him that is before us in these verses. If we turn to Act 8:26-40, we find that the Ethiopian had in his reading of Isaiah reached exactly this point, when Philip intercepted him in his chariot. He was doubtless reading from the Septuagint version in Greek, which renders it, “in His humiliation His judgment was taken away.” It was so indeed, for the trial of our Lord, resulting in His condemnation and crucifixion, was the most atrocious miscarriage of justice the world has ever seen. A legal expert has surveyed the evidence of the Gospels, and stated that every step taken by His accusers and judges, whether Jews or Gentiles, was irregular and unjust.
And the prophetic declaration of the result is, “He was cut off out of the land of the living,” or as the Ethiopian read it, “His life is taken from the earth.” Hence the prophet says, “Who shall declare His generation?” and to this question men would unanimously reply that, His life being taken, no generation was possible. When we reach verse Isa 51:10 of our chapter we shall find the answer which Jehovah gives to this question, and it is a very different one, inasmuch as He was cut off and stricken not for Himself but for the transgression of those whom Jehovah calls “My people.” We have left the verses which give confessions which godly Israelites, and ourselves also, have to make, for oracular statements made by the prophet in the name of Jehovah.
So also in verse Isa 51:9 we hear the voice of the Lord, declaring how He would overrule the circumstances connected with His burial: – “Men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death.” (New Trans.) And so it came to pass. He was crucified between two wicked men, though one of them was gloriously saved before he died; and if men had had their way they would have flung His sacred body with those of the thieves in a common grave, but by the intervention of Joseph of Arimathea this was prevented, and His body lay in the new tomb belonging to Joseph. God always has the needed man for His work. Joseph was born into the world to fulfil that one line of Scripture! That one act covers all that we know of Joseph. In doing it He served the will of God.
In the margin of our reference Bibles we are told that in the Hebrew the word “death” is really in the plural – “DEATHS.” It is what has been called the plural of majesty. Though crucified between two thieves, His death was MAJESTIC – ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of deaths rolled into one.
By Joseph’s act the prophecy of Psa 16:10 was also fulfilled. The Holy One of God was not suffered to see corruption. He had done no violence nor was there deceit, or guile in His mouth. Violence and corruption are the two great forms of evil in the earth. Both were totally absent in Him. Without corruption in His Person and life, there was no touch of it in His death or His burial. Thus far we have seen how God overruled the purposes of wicked men. In the remaining verses we are to see what God Himself achieved in His death and the mighty results that are to follow for Him and – blessed be God: – also for us, who believe in His name.
Isa 51:17. Awake, awake God having awoke and arisen for the comfort of his people, here calls on them to awake, as afterward, Isa 52:1. This is a call to awake, not so much out of the sleep of sin though that also was necessary, in order to their being ready for deliverance, as out of the stupor of despondency and despair. Hebrew, , rouse up thyself; come out of that forlorn and disconsolate condition in which thou hast so long been. When the Jews were in captivity they were so overwhelmed with the sense of their troubles that they had no heart left to mind any thing that tended to their comfort or relief; and therefore when the deliverance came, they are said (Psa 126:1) to be like them that dream. The address may be applied to the Jerusalem, or Jewish Church, which was in the apostles time, which is said to be in bondage with her children, (Gal 4:25,) and to have been under the power of a spirit of slumber, Rom 11:8. They are called to awake and mind the things that belonged to their everlasting peace, and then the cup of trembling should be taken out of their hands, peace should be spoken to them, and they should triumph over Satan, who had blinded their eyes, and brought stupor insensibly upon them. Stand up Upon thy feet, O thou who hast been thrown to the ground. Who hast drunk, &c., the cup of his fury Who hast been sorely afflicted; the dregs of the cup of trembling Which strikes him that drinks it with a deadly horror; and wrung them out Drunk every drop of it.
Isa 51:17 to Isa 52:12. The Sorrow of Jerusalem, which shall Give Place to Joy.
Isa 51:17-20. The prophet, obviously familiar with the vision of Jer 25:15, pictures Jerusalem as staggering under the stupefaction caused by the draught which Yahweh in His anger has compelled her to drink. Two pairs of evils (expressed in Heb. by word-plays) have befallen her, and who is there to comfort her (read who shall for how shall I with VSS). Under the fury of Yahweh her sons are like an antelope exhausted by its vain struggles in the net.
Isa 51:18. Apparently a quotation added by a scribe.
Isa 51:21-23. But Jerusalem shall no more drink of the stupefying draught; the oppressor who, like an eastern conqueror striding over the prostrate bodies of his captive foes, has arrogantly afflicted her shall be compelled to drink it instead.
Isa 51:23. thy soul: render, thee; soul in Heb. often means self.
Isa 52:1 f. With evidently designed contrast to Isaiah 47, where Babylon is bidden sit in the dust and remove her fair apparel, Zion is exhorted to awake and put on garments of beauty. She shall no longer be the slave of the uncircumcised (Chaldan): let her rise from the dust and free herself from her bonds.
Isa 52:2. sit thee down: i.e. on a throne (cf. Isa 47:1). But read, arise, O captive Jerusalem. The continuation of Isa 52:2 has disappeared and been replaced by Isa 52:3-6.
Isa 52:3-6, which breaks the exhortation to Zion, resumed in Isa 52:7, is marked by a view of Israels history different from that of 2 Is., contains late phrases, and is, unlike its context, in prose; it is therefore a late addition. Yahweh assures His people that they were delivered to their oppressors for no fault, and not for money shall they be ransomed. To Egypt they went originally as guests (Gen 45:9-20); nor had Assyria just cause for oppressing them. Now, what do I find hereMy people unjustly taken away, My Temple overthrown, My name constantly spurned! In the day of reckoning My people shall know the meaning of that name, and that it is I who am now speaking to them.
Isa 52:3. sold: in the sense of Jdg 11:14.
Isa 52:5. they . . . howl: difficult in form and meaning, not supported by LXX. Of several emendations my temple is cast down is accepted above.
Isa 52:6. behold it is I: these words belong to the beginning of Isa 52:7, but read simply behold.
Isa 52:7-9. Behold, he who brings glad news of deliverance is speeding over the mountains. All the watchers from the city shout for joy because, so near that they can look in His face (eye to eye), they behold Yahweh approaching to reign in Zion. Let the ruined city break forth into exultant song!
Isa 52:7. Read, Behold, hastening upon the mountains.reigneth: i.e. is about to assume his position as king.
Isa 52:8. Read simply, All thy watchmen lift up, etc.shall see . . . when: render, see . . . how (mg.).
Isa 52:9. waste places: ruins.
Isa 52:10-12. Yahweh has thrown back the clinging garment that might hamper His arm, and all the world shall see the deliverance He will work. . . . Let the exiles depart from Babylon, the people and the priests, who bear the sacred vessels, alike having made themselves ceremonially pure. Nor shall their departure be a hurried flight like the Exodus from Egypt, for Yahweh will be both vanguard and rearguard.
51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drank at the hand of the LORD the {p} cup of his fury; thou hast drank the dregs of the cup of trembling, [and] wrung [them] out.
(p) You have been justly punished and sufficiently as Isa 40:2 and this punishment in the elect is by measure, and according as God gives grace to hear it: but in the reprobate it is the just vengeance of God to drive them to an insensibleness and madness, as Jer 25:15-16 .
Drunken Jerusalem 51:17-23
God now turned the tables on His people and called on them to awake (cf. Isa 51:1). They needed to wake up to the fact that He would comfort them and punish their oppressors (cf. Isa 40:2; Lamentations 1-2). The fact that the Babylonian Captivity continues to lie unmentioned specifically in the text, strengthens the impression that God had more than that historic deliverance in view in what He promised. A greater future redemption is also in view, namely, the one that the Servant would effect.
Jerusalem had drunk a powerful liquid at the hand of her God. He had given her punishment to drink for her sins (cf. Mar 10:38). Drinking a cup of wine is a figure of judgment (cf. Isa 29:9; Isa 63:6; Psa 75:8; Jer 25:15-16; Rev 14:10). Jerusalem now lay in a state of stupor but needed to arise because the Lord had a future for her.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)