Isaiah 51:21

21 Therefore hear now this afflicted [one] and drunken [one] but not from 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 Two [things] here [have] happened to you--who will {show sympathy} for you?-- devastation and destruction, famine and sword--who will comfort you?

20 Your children have fainted; they lie at [the] head of all [the] streets, like an antelope in a snare, those who are full [of] the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore hear now this afflicted [one] and drunken [one] but not from wine.

22 Thus says your Lord, Yahweh, and your God pleads the cause [of] his people: "Look! I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering. You shall not {continue} to drink the goblet, the cup of my wrath, any longer.

23 And I will put it in the hand of your tormenters, who have said to {you}, 'Bow down that we may {pass} over [you]!' And you have {made} your back like the ground, and like the street for those who {pass} over [you]."

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "and"