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Isaiah 51

KJV · Chapter 51/66

1Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

2Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

3For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

4Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.

5My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

7Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

8For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

9Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

10Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

11Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

12I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;

13And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?

14The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.

15But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name.

16And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

17Awake, 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.

18There 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.

19These 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?

20Thy 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.

21Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:

22Thus 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:

23But 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.

📖 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 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.

Chapters

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