Major Prophets · Chapter 51 of 66

Isaiah 51

God calls those who pursue righteousness to look back to Abraham and Sarah and forward to a comforted Zion whose desert becomes like Eden. His salvation is near and everlasting, outlasting the perishing heavens and earth. He urges His arm to awake as in ancient days, promises the ransomed will return with singing, and announces He has taken the cup of His fury from Jerusalem's hand to place it in her oppressors' hand.

What happens in Isaiah 51

God addresses those who seek righteousness, telling them to look to the rock they were hewn from, Abraham and Sarah, whom He blessed and multiplied from one couple. He promises to comfort Zion, turning her waste places into an Eden filled with joy and song. His salvation is going forth as a light to the peoples, and while heaven and earth wear out like a garment, His salvation lasts forever. He tells the righteous not to fear human reproach.

A voice cries for the arm of the LORD to awake as when it cut Rahab and dried the sea, making a path for the ransomed to return with everlasting joy. God answers as the Comforter, asking why they fear mortal men and forget their Maker. Finally He rouses Jerusalem, who has drained the cup of His fury, promising to take that cup from her hand forever and give it to those who trampled her.

Isaiah 51 in context

Part of Isaiah's Book of Comfort to exiles in Babylon, this chapter weaves together memory and hope. It reaches back to creation and the exodus, the cutting of Rahab and the dividing of the sea, to assure a discouraged people that the same arm will act again.

The recurring calls to awake and hearken structure the passage. The cup of trembling reflects the ancient image of God's judgment as a cup the guilty must drink, here lifted from Jerusalem and handed to her tormentors.

Main themes of Isaiah 51

Isaiah 51 (KJV)

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.

Verses to carry from Isaiah 51

“Lift 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.”Isaiah 51:6

“Therefore 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.”Isaiah 51:11

“Thus 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:”Isaiah 51:22

Reflection

You may feel small and afraid of people who seem powerful. Isaiah answers with two memories and one promise: remember the rock you came from, remember the sea God dried, and know His salvation outlasts the fading heavens. The cup you feared can be lifted. Let the everlasting God quiet your fear of mortal men.

A prayer from Isaiah 51