Isaías 51

ARC · Chapter 51/66

1Ouvi-me vós, os que seguis justiça, os que buscaes ao Senhor: olhae para a rocha d'onde fostes cortados, e para a caverna do poço d'onde fostes cavados.

2Olhae para Abrahão, vosso Pae, e para Sarah, que vos pariu; porque, sendo elle só, o chamei, e o abençoei e multipliquei.

3Porque o Senhor consolará a Sião; consolará a todos os seus logares desertos, e fará o seu deserto como o Eden, e a sua solidão como o jardim do Senhor: gozo e alegria se achará n'ella, acção de graças, e voz de melodia.

4Attendei-me, povo meu, e, nação minha, inclinae os ouvidos para mim; porque de mim sairá a lei, e o meu juizo farei repousar para luz dos povos.

5Perto está a minha justiça, vem saindo a minha salvação, e os meus braços julgarão os povos: as ilhas me aguardarão, e no meu braço esperarão.

6Levantae os vossos olhos para os céus, e olhae para a terra de baixo, porque os céus desapparecerão como o fumo, e a terra se envelhecerá como um vestido, e os seus moradores morrerão similhantemente; porém a minha salvação durará para sempre, e a minha justiça não será quebrantada

7Ouvi-me, vós que conheceis a justiça, vós, povo em cujo coração está a minha lei: não temaes o opprobrio dos homens, nem vos turbeis pelas suas injurias.

8Porque a traça os roerá como a um vestido, e o bicho os comerá como á lã: mas a minha justiça durará para sempre, e a minha salvação de geração em geração

9Desperta-te, desperta-te, veste-te de força, ó braço do Senhor: desperta-te como nos dias já passados, como nas gerações antigas; porventura não és tu aquelle que cortou em pedaços a Rahab, o que feriu ao dragão?

10Não és tu aquelle que seccou o mar, as aguas do grande abysmo? o que fez o caminho no fundo do mar, para que passassem os remidos?

11Assim tornarão os resgatados do Senhor, e virão a Sião com jubilo, e perpetua alegria haverá sobre as suas cabeças: gozo e alegria alcançarão, a tristeza e o gemido fugirão.

12Eu, eu sou aquelle que vos consola; quem pois és tu, para que temas o homem, que é mortal? ou o filho do homem, que se tornará em feno?

13E te esqueces do Senhor que te fez, que estendeu os céus, e fundou a terra, e temes continuamente todo o dia o furor do angustiador, quando se prepara para destruir: pois onde está o furor do que te attribulava?

14O exilado captivo depressa será solto, e não morrerá na caverna, e o seu pão lhe não faltará.

15Porque eu sou o Senhor teu Deus, que fendo o mar, e bramem as suas ondas. O Senhor dos Exercitos é o seu nome.

16E ponho as minhas palavras na tua bocca, e te cubro com a sombra da minha mão; para plantar os céus, e para fundar a terra, e para dizer a Sião: Tu és o meu povo.

17Desperta, desperta, levanta-te, ó Jerusalem, que bebeste da mão do Senhor o calix do seu furor; bebeste e chupaste as fezes do calix da vagueação.

18De todos os filhos que pariu nenhum ha que a guie mansamente; e de todos os filhos que creou nenhum que a tome pela mão.

19Estas duas coisas te aconteceram; quem tem compaixão de ti? a assolação, e o quebrantamento, e a fome, e a espada! por quem te consolarei?

20Já os teus filhos desmaiaram, jazem nas entradas de todos os caminhos, como o boi montez na rede; cheios estão do furor do Senhor e da reprehensão do teu Deus.

21Pelo que agora ouve isto, ó oppressa, e embriagada, mas não de vinho.

22Assim diz o teu Senhor, Jehovah, e teu Deus, que pleiteará a causa do seu povo: Eis que eu tomo da tua mão o calix da vagueação, as fezes do calix do meu furor; nunca mais o beberás.

23Porém pôl-o-hei nas mãos dos que te entristeceram, que dizem á tua alma: Abaixa-te, e passaremos sobre ti: e tu pozeste as tuas costas como chão, e como caminho, aos viandantes.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God invites the people to look to Abraham and Sarah, showing that from a single couple he multiplied a great nation, and promises the same kind of restoration for Zion. He comforts Jerusalem, who has already drunk the 'cup of his fury,' saying that cup will now pass to her oppressors.

Explanation

Remembering Abraham and Sarah — who were barren and elderly when God promised to multiply them — serves as an argument for hope: if God could create an entire nation from a childless couple, he can certainly restore an already-existing nation, even one that has been destroyed. The repeated image of the "cup of fury" that Jerusalem drank represents the suffering of divine judgment, but it is now passed on to those who oppressed the people, a reversal of justice. The chapter also revisits the language of "cutting Rahab in pieces" and "drying up the sea," recalling both creation and the Exodus as proofs of God's power to deliver. The application today is to remember God's past faithfulness as a foundation for hope in present challenges, even when the situation seems impossible to reverse.

Fun facts

  • The reference to "cutting Rahab in pieces" (v.9) again uses the name of a mythological sea monster (similar to Leviathan in chapter 27), here used poetically to describe the deliverance from Egypt at the crossing of the Red Sea.
  • The metaphor of the "cup of fury" passed from hand to hand among nations is picked up later in texts such as Jeremiah 25 and Revelation 14, becoming a recurring image of divine judgment throughout biblical tradition.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaías 51:1Looking at the rock and the pit from which they were dug out tells the people to remember Abraham and Sarah, the first of the line, as a quarry of origin. It’s a way of saying “where they came from” to reinforce that whoever multiplied a single couple can multiply the people again.
  2. Isaías 51:2Looking to Abraham and Sarah is a reminder of origin: they started out alone, with no child at all, and yet multiplied by God’s promise. It’s an argument of hope for a people reduced by exile.
  3. Isaías 51:3Comparing Zion’s wilderness to Eden, the original garden of creation, is the ultimate image of restoration in the book: not just rebuilding, but a return to an original state of abundance and joy.
  4. Isaías 51:4“Law” and “judgment” going forth from God “for a light of the people” repeats the idea already used with the Servant in chapters 42 and 49: Israel’s message reaches beyond the people’s own borders.
  5. Isaías 51:5The “isles” that wait upon God’s arm repeat the language already used in chapters 41 and 42 for distant nations, reinforcing that the righteousness announced here carries international expectation.
  6. Isaías 51:6Heavens vanishing like smoke and earth wearing out like a garment describe the end of everything that seems permanent in the physical world, a deliberate contrast with the promise that God’s salvation lasts forever.
  7. Isaías 51:7Calling the people “ye that know righteousness” and having the law “in whose heart” it is describes an internal, not merely external, commitment, laying the ground for the following counsel not to fear human mockery.
  8. Isaías 51:8Repeating the image of the moth eating a garment, already used in verse 6 for the heavens and the earth, now applied to human oppressors, reinforces that any persecution also has an expiration date.
  9. Isaías 51:9Rahab and the dragon here are not real animals: they are names for a chaos monster that appeared in ancient Near Eastern myths to represent the forces of the sea. The prophet uses these familiar cultural images to speak, in fact, of God’s victory at the crossing of the Red Sea.
  10. Isaías 51:10Asking whether it was not this same God who dried up the sea for the redeemed to cross retakes the crossing of the Red Sea once again, a historical anchor repeated in the book to justify confidence in a new deliverance.
  11. Isaías 51:11This verse repeats almost word for word the ending of chapter 35, functioning as a refrain of hope that appears more than once in the book to describe the triumphant arrival at Zion.
  12. Isaías 51:12“I, even I, am he that comforteth you” contrasts God’s permanence with the frailty of “a man that shall die,” questioning why the people fear human oppressors more than they trust this comfort.
  13. Isaías 51:13The question “where is the fury of the oppressor?” suggests that fear of the oppressor, however real in the moment, will lose its meaning once that specific threat finally passes.
  14. Isaías 51:14“The captive exile” being quickly set free, not dying in the dungeon nor going hungry, promises a swift and dignified end to the situation of captivity, unlike the fear of an inescapable prison.
  15. Isaías 51:15Repeating “that divided the sea” returns to the same Exodus image used in the previous verses, once again reinforcing God’s historical credentials as an argument for trusting the present promise.
  16. Isaías 51:16“I have put my words in thy mouth” describes someone, probably the prophet or the people, receiving the mission to speak in God’s name, tied here to the task of declaring to Zion that she is still the chosen people.
  17. Isaías 51:17The cup full of God’s fury is the wine cup the people had to drink to the very last drop, an image of complete punishment. It reappears a few verses later, when God promises to take this cup out of Jerusalem’s hands.
  18. Isaías 51:18Describing Zion with no one to guide her or hold her hand among her own children is an image of total helplessness, a situation that contrasts with the care promised in the earlier verses of the chapter.
  19. Isaías 51:19Desolation, destruction, famine, and sword form a list of four disasters that struck the city all at once, so severe that the text asks who would be left to offer comfort.
  20. Isaías 51:20Comparing the fainting children to a wild bull caught in a net describes the people caught by surprise with no way out during the punishment, the image of a trap from which there is no escaping alone.
  21. Isaías 51:21“Drunken, but not with wine” repeats the same image from chapter 29, using drunkenness as a metaphor for the dazed, confused state of someone who has suffered so much punishment they can no longer react properly.
  22. Isaías 51:22The “cup of trembling” and the “dregs of the cup of my fury” pick up again the image of punishment drunk to the last drop; here comes the good news that this specific cup will not be drunk anymore.
  23. Isaías 51:23Placing the cup into the hands of the oppressors, who once trod on the people’s backs as though they were the ground, reverses the situation: now it is they who will suffer the same kind of punishment they inflicted.

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