Isaiah 51

God speaks comfort to a discouraged people who are tempted to fear their enemies. He points them back to Abraham and Sarah, forward to Zion’s restoration, and up to the One who made the heavens and parted the sea. The chapter ends with Jerusalem, drunk with God’s anger, being told to wake up, because the cup has been taken from her hand.

Isaiah 51:1

God speaks to those who truly want Him. He tells them to remember where they came from. Like stone cut out of a quarry, they were shaped from a single source. They did not make themselves, and knowing that steadies the faithful when times are hard.

BSA: pursue (“follow after”): Righteousness is something these people run after, not something they merely admire.

Hebrew: מקבת (maqqevet, H4718) — “quarry, a place where stone is dug out.” The picture is of raw stone cut from a pit. Israel’s beginning was humble and entirely God’s doing.

Isaiah 51:2

The quarry is Abraham and Sarah. They were one old, childless couple, yet God called them, blessed them and made a nation from them. If God can build a people from one, He can raise up His people again from their ruins.

BSA: called (“summoned”): Abraham did not find God; God summoned him, and everything that followed began with that call.

Hebrew: אחד (echad, H259) — “one, alone.” Abraham stood alone when God called him. The whole promise rested on one person trusting God.

See also: Genesis 12:1-3; Hebrews 11:11-12.

Isaiah 51:3

God promises to comfort Zion. Her ruined places will become like Eden, the first garden. Where there was silence and rubble there will be joy, thanksgiving and singing. What God once did at creation, He will do again for His people.

BSA: comfort (“show pity”): God’s comfort comes from real compassion for a people in pain. ruins (“desolations”): These are places laid waste, and God will not leave them that way.

Hebrew: נחם (nicham, H5162) — “to comfort, to console.” This word runs through Isaiah 40-66. Here God’s comfort is more than kind words. It is real rebuilding.

See also: Isaiah 40:1; Ezekiel 36:35.

Isaiah 51:4

God calls His people to listen closely. His teaching will go out from Him and become a light to all nations. His justice is not meant for Israel alone. The promise that He will bring it about quickly is meant to encourage those who are waiting.

BSA: light (“spiritual guidance”): God’s justice does more than judge. It guides the nations out of darkness.

See also: Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 2:3.

Isaiah 51:5

God’s righteousness and salvation are near, and His own arm acts to bring them. Even the far-off coastlands are waiting for Him. His rescue is not slow or distant. It is already on its way, and it reaches beyond Israel.

BSA: arms (“strength, might, power”): The arm stands for God’s strength stretched out to act.

Isaiah 51:6

God points up at the sky and down at the ground. Both look permanent, yet both will wear out, and people are as short-lived as gnats. Only God’s salvation and righteousness last. The believer’s hope rests on what will never end.

BSA: gnats (“small flying insects”): Human life is pictured as tiny and brief, so human threats are small beside God’s eternal rescue.

See also: Psalm 102:25-27; Matthew 24:35.

Isaiah 51:7

This is for people who know what is right and carry God’s teaching inside them. They should not fear human scorn or be crushed by insults. Their security comes from what God has written on their hearts, not from what people say.

BSA: law (“instruction, Torah”): God’s law here is living teaching He has placed within His people, not just a list of rules.

See also: Jeremiah 31:33; Matthew 5:11-12.

Isaiah 51:8

Those who mock God’s people will not last. Moths and worms eat cloth, and in the same way their power will be eaten away. God’s righteousness and salvation continue through every generation. What looks strong now will rot, and what God gives will remain.

Hebrew: עש (ash, H6211) — “moth.” A moth is silent and small, yet it ruins good cloth. God shows that His enemies’ strength decays quietly from within.

Isaiah 51:9

The people now cry out to God and ask Him to wake up and act as He did long ago. Rahab and the dragon are poetic names for chaos and for Egypt. The prayer boldly reminds God of what He has already done.

BSA: Rahab (“the sea monster”): Rahab is a symbol of the great enemy powers, here probably Egypt, that God defeated.

Hebrew: עורי (uri, H5782) — “awake, rouse yourself.” It is a call to action, not a claim that God sleeps. The people are praying with urgency because they feel He has been silent.

See also: Psalm 74:13-14.

Isaiah 51:10

The people remember the Red Sea. God dried up the deep and made a road through it, and His redeemed people crossed over on dry ground. The way the sea was parted becomes the ground of hope that He can open a way again.

BSA: redeemed (“the ransomed”): These people were bought back and rescued, not merely helped along.

Hebrew: גאולים (ge’ulim, H1350) — “redeemed ones.” The word comes from the family duty of a relative who buys back someone in need. God is pictured as Israel’s family rescuer.

See also: Exodus 14:21-22.

Isaiah 51:11

God’s answer to the prayer is a promise. His people will come home to Zion singing, crowned with joy that does not end. Sorrow and sighing will run away from them. The new rescue will be like the old one, and better.

BSA: redeemed (“ransomed, set free by God”): Their freedom is a gift from God, and the joy of the return grows out of that gift.

Hebrew: פדויי (pedwuyei, H6299) — “ransomed ones of.” This is another word for being bought out of slavery. It underlines that a price has been paid on their behalf.

See also: Isaiah 35:10.

Isaiah 51:12

God answers the fear in His people’s hearts. He is the One who comforts them, so why fear a person who will wither like grass? Their fear has been looking at the wrong thing. God asks them to compare the enemy with Himself.

BSA: comforts (“provides solace, calms fears”): God’s comfort reaches the fear itself and settles it.

Hebrew: אנכי אנכי (anochi anochi, H595) — “I, I myself.” The doubled pronoun is emphatic. God says it is He, and no other, who comforts.

See also: Isaiah 40:6-8.

Isaiah 51:13

Fear grows when people forget God. He stretched out the heavens and laid the earth’s foundations, yet they live in dread of one angry oppressor. Then God asks where that fury is now. A ruler who seems so terrible is soon gone.

BSA: forgotten (“been oblivious to”): They did not deny God. They simply stopped keeping Him in mind, and that made the oppressor look bigger.

Isaiah 51:14

Those held in prison will soon be set free. They will not die in the pit, and they will not go hungry. The promise is concrete and kind. God cares for the prisoner’s body and bread as well as for the prisoner’s soul.

BSA: captive (“prisoner, exile”): The word covers both the person in a dungeon and the people in exile far from home.

Isaiah 51:15

God is the LORD who stirs the sea until the waves roar. If He rules the wildest forces of nature, no human tyrant can rule over Him. The name LORD of Hosts means He commands every power in heaven and earth.

BSA: stirs up (“troubles, quiets, or divides”): The sea is wholly under God’s hand. He can stir it, calm it or divide it.

Isaiah 51:16

God has given His people His words and sheltered them in His hand. He is still at work, setting heaven and earth in place and telling Zion, ‘You are My people.’ Their calling and their safety both rest on God.

BSA: shadow (“protection, care”): To be in the shadow of His hand is to be sheltered and watched over.

Hebrew: בצל ידי (betsel yadi, H6738) — “in the shadow of my hand.” It pictures a parent’s hand held over a child. This is close, personal care.

See also: Isaiah 59:21.

Isaiah 51:17

Now God speaks to Jerusalem and tells her to wake up. She has drunk the cup of God’s anger down to the dregs, and it has left her staggering. The cup is a picture of judgment taken in fully, until nothing is left.

BSA: dregs (“last drops, remains”): Jerusalem drank everything the cup held. The judgment was complete.

Hebrew: כוס (kos, H3563) — “cup.” In the Old Testament a cup often stands for what God gives a person to receive, whether blessing or judgment. Here it is judgment.

See also: Jeremiah 25:15.

Isaiah 51:18

Jerusalem is pictured as a mother who has been left alone. Not one of her many children is able to lead her or take her by the hand. She has no human helper left, so any rescue must come from God.

BSA: guide (“lead, direct”): She needs someone to lead her, and none of her children can.

Isaiah 51:19

Two pairs of troubles have struck her. Ruin and destruction describe what was done to the land, and hunger and the sword describe what was done to the people. No one is left to mourn or comfort her. Her grief is made heavier by her loneliness.

BSA: devastation (“desolation, wasting”): The land itself lies waste, and the pain is not only personal.

Isaiah 51:20

Her sons have collapsed on the street corners, as helpless as a wild animal caught in a net. They are full of God’s anger. The picture is bleak, and Isaiah does not soften it. The people lie in the open, with no one lifting them.

BSA: antelope (“wild bull, oryx”): A strong wild animal that has been trapped is still strong, but it cannot free itself.

Isaiah 51:21

God now speaks to the same afflicted people. They are drunk, but with His anger and not with wine. The sentence turns toward hope. The One who has pictured the cup is the One who will take it away.

BSA: afflicted (“poor little one, troubled”): God speaks tenderly to the weak and troubled.

Isaiah 51:22

Their Lord pleads their cause like an advocate. He has taken the cup of staggering from their hand, and they will never drink it again. The judgment they deserved has been lifted, and God Himself has done the lifting.

BSA: defends (“pleads the cause of”): God acts like a lawyer arguing His people’s case against their accusers.

Hebrew: יריב (yarib, H7378) — “pleads the case, argues in court.” This is a courtroom word. God takes His people’s side and argues for them.

See also: Matthew 26:39.

Isaiah 51:23

The cup now passes to those who tormented God’s people. They once demanded that Jerusalem lie down so they could walk over her, and she did. Now their own cruelty is answered. God ends the humiliation of His people and turns the cup on those who inflicted it.

BSA: tormentors (“afflictors, oppressors”): These are the very people who caused the suffering, and God holds them to account.