Text -- Isaiah 51:18-23 (NET)

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? 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. 51:21 So listen to this, oppressed one, who is drunk, but not from wine! 51:22 This is what your sovereign master, the Lord your God, says: “Look, I have removed from your hand the cup of intoxicating wine, the goblet full of my anger. You will no longer have to drink it. 51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors 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.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 51:19

¹ tc The Hebrew text has אֲנַחֲמֵךְ (’anakhamekh), a first person form, but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly יִנַחֲמֵךְ (yinakhamekh), a third person form.

NET Notes: Isa 51:20

¹ tn Heb “those who are full of the anger of the Lord, the shout [or “rebuke”] of your God.”

NET Notes: Isa 51:22

¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

² tn Heb “the cup of [= that causes] staggering” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV); NASB “the cup of reeling.”

³ tn Heb “the goblet of the cup of my anger.”

NET Notes: Isa 51:23

¹ tn That is, to make them drink it.