Isaiah 51:21

21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, 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 things are come unto thee--who shall be sorry for thee?" desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword" by whom shall I comfort thee?

20 Thy sons have fainted; they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.

21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine.

22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people: "Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.

23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, who have said to thy soul, `Bow down, that we may go over.' And thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over."