Isaiah 51:21

21 Therefore, please hear this in your affliction, you who are drunk, but not with wine;

Isaiah 51:21 Meaning and Commentary

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 sense; nor with the wine of the fornication of the whore of Rome; nor with idolatry, as the kings of the earth are said to be, ( Revelation 17:2 ) ( 18:3 ) but, as the Targum expresses it, with tribulation; with afflictions at the hand of God, and persecutions from men.

Isaiah 51:21 In-Context

19 These two disasters have overcome you - yet who will grieve with you? - plunder and destruction, famine and sword; by whom can I comfort you?
20 Your children lie helpless at every street corner, like an antelope trapped in a net; they are full of ADONAI's fury, the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore, please hear this in your affliction, you who are drunk, but not with wine;
22 this is what your Lord ADONAI says, your God, who defends his people: "Here, I have removed from your hand the cup of drunkenness, the goblet of my fury. You will never drink it again.
23 I will put it in the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, 'Bend down, so we can trample you,' and you flattened your back on the ground like a street for them to walk on."
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.