17 Rouse yourself ! Rouse yourself ! Arise , O Jerusalem , You who have drunk from the Lord'S hand the cup of His anger ; The chalice e of reeling you have drained to the dregs . 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne , Nor is there one to take her by the hand among all the sons she has reared . 19 These two things have befallen you; Who will mourn for you? The devastation and destruction , famine and sword ; How shall I comfort you? 20 Your sons have fainted , They lie helpless at the head of every street , Like an antelope in a net , Full of the wrath of the Lord , The rebuke of your God .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 51:17-20
Commentary on Isaiah 51:17-23
(Read Isaiah 51:17-23)
God calls upon his people to mind the things that belong to their everlasting peace. Jerusalem had provoked God, and was made to taste the bitter fruits. Those who should have been her comforters, were their own tormentors. They have no patience by which to keep possesion of their own souls, nor any confidence in God's promise, by which to keep possession of its comfort. Thou art drunken, not as formerly, with the intoxicating cup of Babylon's idolatries, but with the cup of affliction. Know, then, the cause of God's people may for a time seem as lost, but God will protect it, by convincing the conscience, or confounding the projects, of those that strive against it. The oppressors required souls to be subjected to them, that every man should believe and worship as they would have them. But all they could gain by violence was, that people were brought to outward hypocritical conformity, for consciences cannot be forced.