Yeshayah 51:19

19 These two are come upon thee. Who shall grieve for thee? Shod and shever and ra’av (famine) and cherev; with whom shall I console thee?

Yeshayah 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 ) .

Yeshayah 51:19 In-Context

17 Awake, awake, rise up, O Yerushalayim, which hast drunk at the Yad Hashem the kos of His fury; thou hast drunk to the dregs and drained dry the Kos HaTarelah (Cup of Reeling).

18 Among kol banim whom she hath given birth to, there is none to guide her; neither is there any that taketh her by the yad of kol banim that she hath reared.

19 These two are come upon thee. Who shall grieve for thee? Shod and shever and ra’av (famine) and cherev; with whom shall I console thee?

20 Thy banim have fainted, they lie at the rosh of all the streets, like a wild bull in a net; they are full of the chamat Hashem, the rebuke of thy G-d.

21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted one, thou drunken one, but not with yayin;