Isaiah 51:21

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.)

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 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.)

22 The Lordly Governor, thy Lord, and thy God, that fought for his people, saith these things, Lo! I have taken from thine hand the cup of sleep, the bottom of the cup of mine indignation (yea, the dregs of the cup of my anger); I shall not lay to, that thou drink it any more.

23 And I shall set it in the hand of them that made thee low, and said to thy soul, Be thou bowed, that we pass; and thou hast set thy body as (the) earth, and as a way to them that go forth. (And I shall put it in the hand of them who made thee low, and who said to thee, Be thou bowed down, so that we can trample upon thee; and thou hast made thy body like the ground, and a way for them to go upon.)