Discovery BoxIsaiah 51:17-23
Context51:17 Wake up! Wake up!
Get up, O Jerusalem!
You drank from the cup the Lord passed to you,
which was full of his anger! 1
You drained dry
the goblet full of intoxicating wine. 2
51:18 There was no one to lead her
among all the children she bore;
there was no one to take her by the hand
among all the children she raised.
51:19 These double disasters confronted you.
But who feels sorry for you?
Destruction and devastation,
famine and sword.
But who consoles you? 3
51:20 Your children faint;
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a snare.
They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger,
by the battle cry of your God. 4
51:21 So listen to this, oppressed one,
who is drunk, but not from wine!
51:22 This is what your sovereign master, 5 the Lord your God, says:
“Look, I have removed from your hand
the cup of intoxicating wine, 6
the goblet full of my anger. 7
You will no longer have to drink it.
51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors 8
who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’
You made your back like the ground,
and like the street for those who walked over you.”
[51:17] 1 tn Heb “[you] who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger.”
[51:17] 2 tn Heb “the goblet, the cup [that causes] staggering, you drank, you drained.”
[51:19] 3 tc The Hebrew text has אֲנַחֲמֵךְ (’anakhamekh), a first person form, but the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly יִנַחֲמֵךְ (yinakhamekh), a third person form.
[51:20] 4 tn Heb “those who are full of the anger of the Lord, the shout [or “rebuke”] of your God.”
[51:22] 5 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
[51:22] 6 tn Heb “the cup of [= that causes] staggering” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV); NASB “the cup of reeling.”
