Isaiah 51:19

19 Two things there be that came to thee; who shall be sorry on thee? (There be two things that came to thee; who shall be sorry for thee?) destroying, and defouling, and hunger, and sword. Who shall comfort thee?

Isaiah 51:19 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 51:19

These two things are come unto thee
Affliction from the hand of God, though by means of enemies, and no friends to help, support, and comfort, as before hinted: or else this respects what follows, after it is said, who shall be sorry for thee?
lament or bemoan thee? they of the earth will rejoice and be glad, and others will not dare to show any concern outwardly, whatever inward grief may be in their breasts, ( Revelation 11:10 ) , desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword;
which may be the two things before mentioned, for though there are four words, they are reducible to two things, desolation, which is the sword, and by it, and destruction, which is the famine, and comes by that, as Kimchi observes: or the words may be rendered thus, "desolation, and destruction, even the famine and the sword"; so that there is no need of making these things four, and of considering them as distinct from the other two, as the Targum makes them, which paraphrases the whole thus,

``two tribulations come upon thee, O Jerusalem, thou canst not arise; when four shall come upon thee, spoiling and breach, and the famine and the sword, there shall be none to comfort thee but I.''
All this was literally true of Jerusalem, both at the destruction of it by the Chaldeans and by the Romans, and will be mystically true of the church at the slaying of the witnesses by the sword of antichrist; when there will be a famine, not of bread, nor of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord; and which will bring great devastation and desolation on the interest of Christ: by whom shall I comfort thee?
there being no ministry of the word, nor administration of the ordinances, the usual means of comfort, the witnesses being slain; see ( Lamentations 1:9 Lamentations 1:16 Lamentations 1:21 ) ( 2:13 ) .

Isaiah 51:19 In-Context

17 Be thou raised (up), be thou raised (up), rise thou, Jerusalem, that hast drunk of the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath (that hast drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger); thou hast drunk unto the bottom of the cup of sleep, thou hast drunk of (it) unto the dregs.
18 None there is that sustaineth it, of all the sons which it engendered; and none there is that taketh the hand thereof, of all the sons which it nourished. (There is no one who sustaineth thee, of all those whom thou hath begat; and there is no one who taketh thy hand, of all those whom thou hath nourished.)
19 Two things there be that came to thee; who shall be sorry on thee? (There be two things that came to thee; who shall be sorry for thee?) destroying, and defouling, and hunger, and sword. Who shall comfort thee?
20 Thy sons be cast forth, they slept in the head of all (the) ways, as the beast oryx (like the oryx beast, or the antelope), taken with a snare; they be full of [the] indignation of the Lord, of the blaming of thy God.
21 Therefore thou poor, and drunken, not of wine, hear these things. (And so O poor and drunken one, but not of wine, listen to these things.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.