Isaiah 51:21

Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted,.... By Babylon, by antichrist and his followers; hear, for thy comfort, the following prophecy: and drunken, but not with wine; not with wine in a literal

Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine - (Isaiah 29:9 : cf. Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:20 here; Lamentations 3:15.)

But with the cup of God’ s fury, mentioned

Isaiah 51:21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:Ver. 21. Thou afflicted and drunken.] With a dry drunkenness, which thou canst not so easily sleep out.

(21) Drunken, but not with wine . . .—Same phrase as in Isaiah 29:9.

Verse 21. Drunken, but not with wine] AEschylus has the same expression: - Αοινοιςεμμανειςθυμωμασι· Eumen. 863. Intoxicated with passion, not with wine. Schultens thinks that this circumlocution, as he calls it, gradum adfert incomparabiliter majorem; and that it means, not simply without wine, but much more than with wine. Gram. Heb. p. 182. The bold image of the cup of God's wrath, often employed by the sacred writers, (See Clarke on Isaiah 1:22,) is nowhere handled with greater force and sublimity than in this passage of Isaiah, Isaiah 51:17-23. Jerusalem is represented in person as staggering under the effects of it, destitute of that assistance which she might expect from her children; not one of them being able to support or to lead her. They, abject and amazed, lie at the head of every street, overwhelmed with the greatness of their distress; like the oryx entangled in a net, in vain struggling to rend it, and extricate himself. This is poetry of the first order, sublimity of the highest character. Plato had an idea something like this: "Suppose," says he, "God had given to men a medicating potion inducing fear, so that the more any one should drink of it, so much the more miserable he should find himself at every draught, and become fearful of every thing both present and future; and at last, though the most courageous of men, should be totally possessed by fear: and afterwards, having slept off the effects of it, should become himself again." De Leg. i., near the end. He pursues at large this hypothesis, applying it to his own purpose, which has no relation to the present subject. Homer places two vessels at the disposal of Jupiter, one of good, the other of evil. He gives to some a potion mixed of both; to others from the evil vessel only: these are completely miserable. Iliad xxiv. 527-533. ΔοιοιγαρτεπιθοικατακειαταιενΔιοςουδει Δωρων, οἱαδιδωσι, κακων, ἑτεροςδεεαων, ὩμενκαμμιξαςδῳηΖευςτερπικεραυνος, Αλλοτεμεντεκακῳὁγεκυρεται, αλλοτεδ' εσθλῳ· Ὡδεκετωνλυγρωνδῳη, λωβητονεθηκε. Καιἑκακηβουβρωστιςεπιχθοναδιανελαυνει· Φοιτᾳδ' ουτεθεοισιτετιμενος, ουτιβροτοισιν. "Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood, The source of evil one, and one of good; From thence the cup of mortal man he fills, Blessings to these, to those distributes ills; To most he mingles both: the wretch decreed To taste the bad unmixed, is cursed indeed: Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven, He wanders outcast both of earth and heaven." POPE.

Ch. Isaiah 51:17 to Isaiah 52:12. The Lord will turn the Captivity of ZionThe three oracles into which this passage naturally falls are these:—(1) Isaiah 51:17-23. The prophet, returning to the thought with which the book opens (ch. Isaiah 40:2), announces that the period of Jerusalem’s degradation has expired. The city is figured as a woman lying prostrate and senseless, intoxicated with the cup of the Lord’s indignation which she has drunk to the dregs, her sons unable to help her (17–20). But the cup is now taken from her and passed to the enemies who had oppressed and insulted her (21–23). (2) Isaiah 52:1-6. In a new apostrophe, the image is carried on; let Zion lay aside her soiled raiment, and the emblems of her slavery, and put on her holiday attire (1, 2). Jehovah will no longer endure that His name should be blasphemed through the banishment of His people (3–6). (3) Isaiah 51:7-12. A description of the triumphal return of Jehovah to Zion, obviously based on the last section of the Prologue (ch. Isaiah 40:9-11). The writer pictures the scene of joy within the city when the heralds of the King arrive (7, 8); he calls on the waste places of Jerusalem to break forth into singing (9, 10); and finally, turning to the exiles (as in Isaiah 48:20 f.) he summons them to hasten their escape from the land of their captivity (11, 12).

And drunken, but not with wine - Overcome and prostrate, but not under the influence of intoxicating drink. They were prostrate by the wrath of God.

21-23. Hear now this — It is the same speaker still, but the address turns from the picture of suffering to that of hope and promise.