Isaiah 51:19

19 ¹These two things have happened to you-- who will console you?-- devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?^[a]

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 Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.

18 There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up.

19 These two things have happened to you-- who will console you?-- devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?

20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.

21 Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine:

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 47:9

Footnotes

• [a]. Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Masoretic Text how shall I comfort you