Isaiah 51:17-22

Context

51:17 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.

[51:17] ¹tn Heb “[you] who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger.”

[51:17] ²tn Heb “the goblet, the cup [that causes] staggering, you drank, you drained.”

[51:19] ³tc The Hebrew text has אֲנַחֲמֵךְ (’anakhamekh), a first person form, but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly יִנַחֲמֵךְ (yinakhamekh), a third person form.

[51:20] ⁴tn Heb “those who are full of the anger of the Lord, the shout [or “rebuke”] of your God.”

[51:22] ⁵tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[51:22] ⁶tn Heb “the cup of [= that causes] staggering” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV); NASB “the cup of reeling.”

[51:22] ⁷tn Heb “the goblet of the cup of my anger.”