Isaiah 51:1 Hearken 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.
Isaiah now addresses the devout in Israel, those who sincerely and earnestly looked for the fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers but who had become discouraged because of their delay and apparent failure (see on
chs. 49:4, 14; 50:1). They had forgotten how the Lord had led their fathers in ages past (see LS 196). God now invites them to turn to Him and to forget their doubts and misgivings. For those who seek righteousness and deliverance there is but one way to attain these objectives, and that is by faithful obedience to the voice of the Lord.
Heb. ṣedeq, usually “righteousness,” but also “justice,” “success,” or “deliverance.” He who sows righteousness will reap justice, success, and deliverance.
The one is the cause,the other the result. Both shades of meaning may be intended here. The first is emphasized in
v. 7, and the second in
v. 5. If Israel would only
do right, they could expect justice, success, and deliverance.
Israel was to reflect on the way by which God had led the nation in past ages. From a humble beginning they had become a great nation. As stone is taken from the quarry and shaped into a beautiful temple, so the people of Israel had been brought out of Egypt and Mesopotamia and prepared by God to be His living representatives. How marvelously the Lord had worked in their behalf! Now He would have them take courage, in faith believing that He would do so again.
Isaiah 51:2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
Isaiah 51:3 For 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.
Dead Sea scroll 1QIs adds, “And grief and sighing shall flee away.”
Isaiah 51:4 Hearken 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.
Heb.
torah, which includes all the revealed will of God (see on
Deut. 31:9; Ps. 19:7). God here promises to continue making His purposes known to Israel (see
Amos 3:7).
Divine justice will again be established on earth (see on
ch. 42:4, 6), and confidence in god’s rulership will bring in a spirit of peace and security.
Isaiah 51:5 My 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.
That is,
“deliverance” (see on
v. 1). The deliverance God now promises His people will not be long delayed.
See on
ch. 42:4. The restoration of Israel was to be followed by the ingathering of the Gentile nations (see pp. 28-30).
Isaiah 51:6 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.
The heavens shall vanish.
See on
ch. 34:4. In place of this clause and the next, Dead Sea scroll 1QIs has,
“And see who created these things” (see
ch. 40:26). The hour is coming when the atmospheric heavens are to
“be dissolved” (
2 Peter 3:10, 11). Heaven and earth may pass away, but God’s revealed will (see on
Isa. 51:4) abides forever (see
Matt. 5:18).
When God restores the earth to its original state it will not again revert to its present state of moral chaos.
Isaiah 51:7 Hearken 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.
Those who
“know righteousness” are here defined as having the law of God—a transcript of His character—in their hearts. His revealed will (see on
v. 4) is etched upon their minds, and in character they are like Him (see
Gal. 2:20; Col. 1:27; 1 John 3:2, 3).
Isaiah 51:8 For 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.
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, 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?
Representing the devout in Israel, Isaiah pleads with God to repeat the great works of deliverance that marked the days of old (see on
vs. 1, 2).
A poetical term for Egypt (see on
Ps. 87:4; Isa. 30:7). As God has delivered His people in ages past, so may He deliver them now!
Isaiah 51:10 Art 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?
That is, the
“arm” of the Lord (
v. 9).
Isaiah 51:11 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.
See on
ch. 35:10. Isaiah again foretells the return from Babylonian captivity. Similarly,
“all Israel” (
Rom. 11:26), the spiritual children of Abraham (
Gal. 3:29), will be delivered from the tyranny of mystical Babylon (
Rev. 18:1-4; 19:1, 2; 21:1-4). Instead of “redeemed, Dead Sea scroll 1QIs reads
“scattered [sheep]” (see
Jer. 50:17).
Isaiah 51:12 I, 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;
Literally,
“I, I.” Repetition of the pronoun emphasizes the Lord as the source of Israel’s confidence. If God is with them, who can be against them (see
Rom. 8:31)? There is no other help.
Isaiah 51:13 And 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?
This was the cause of all the difficulties that had beset Israel and all they had yet to face. On the danger of forgetting God, see
Rom. 1:20-24.
Isaiah 51:14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
The first clause of the verse reads literally, “speedily the one bowing down shall be released.” Dead Sea scroll 1QIs reads “the distressed one” instead of “the one bowing down.”
Egypt was once the
“pit” in which Israel languished. Similarly, for a time, Babylon was to hold them fast. But no power on earth can thwart God’s purpose to deliver His own when the time comes for their release. For the
“pit” as a place of imprisonment see
Gen. 37:20; Isa. 24:22; Zech. 9:11. For the same Hebrew word translated
“dungeon” see
Gen. 40:15; Jer. 38:6.
Isaiah 51:15 But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name.
Isaiah 51:16 And 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.
That is, the words of God in the mouth of Isaiah.
Isaiah 51:17 Awake, 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.
Compare
v. 9, where Israel addresses these words to the Lord. Here God speaks to a reprobate Jerusalem to arouse her from a drunken stupor induced, as it were, by the wine of God’s fury. The meting out of judgment is often likened to the pouring out of a cup of wrath (
Ps. 75:8; Jer. 25:15, 16; Eze. 23:32-34; Rev. 14:10). An earnest call is extended to Jerusalem to arouse herself and come to her senses before it is forever too late.
Isaiah 51:18 There 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.
Jerusalem’s sons have fallen in battle (
ch. 49:20, 21), and she finds herself a forlorn exile (see on
ch. 49:21). She has had many children, but none of them is now present to help her. In her time of greatest need she finds herself utterly forsaken. If relief is to be provided it must come from God.
Isaiah 51:19 These 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?
The one, famine and the sword, has brought about the other, desolation and destruction (see
Eze. 14:21; Rev. 6:8).
By whom shall I comfort thee?
Dead Sea scroll 1QIs, the LXX, the Syriac, and the Vulgate read, “Who will comfort you?”
Isaiah 51:20 Thy 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.
Heb.
to’, a word that occurs only here and in
Deut. 14:5, and whose meaning is uncertain. It was apparently a clean wild animal (see
Deut. 14:5) identified by some as the wild sheep and by others as the antelope. Jerusalem is described as in a state of siege, its defenders fallen in the streets. They are like a wild animal taken in a net, struggling frantically to escape, and finally overcome with exhaustion.
Isaiah 51:21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
Isaiah 51:22 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:
The Lord arises in response to the appeal of
v. 17 (see
vs. 18, 19), to comfort (see on
ch. 40:1) and rescue Jerusalem. The hour of her release is at hand.
Isaiah 51:23 But 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.
The reason for passing the cup of divine fury on to the oppressors of Israel is clearly set forth in
chs. 10:5-13; 49:25. The unwonted cruelty of the conquerors of Israel cried for justice.