An exhortation, after the pattern of Abraham, to trust in Christ, 1, 2, by reason of his comfortable promises, 3, of his righteous salvation, 4-6, and man's mortality, 7, 8. Christ by his sanctified arm defends his people from the fear of man, 9-16. He bewails the afflictions of Jerusalem, 17-20, and promises deliverance, 21-23.
1 "Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness,/
you who seek the LORD./
Look to the rock from where you are hewn,/
and to the hole of the pit from where you are dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father/
and to Sarah who bore you,/
for I called him alone,/
blessed him, and increased him.
3 For the LORD will comfort Zion./
He will comfort all her waste places,/
and he will make her wilderness like Eden/
and her desert like the garden of the LORD./
Joy and gladness shall be found therein,/
thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 Listen to me, my people,/
and give ear to me, O my nation./
For a law shall proceed from me,/
and I will make my judgment to rest/
as a light to the people.
5 My righteousness is near./
My salvation has gone forth,/
and my arms shall judge the people./
The coastlands shall wait upon me,/
and in my arm they shall trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens/
and look upon the earth beneath,/
for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,/
the earth shall become old like a garment,/
and its inhabitants shall die in a like manner./
But my salvation shall be forever/
and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Listen to me, you who know righteousness,/
the people in whose heart my law is./
Do not fear the reproach of men,/
neither be afraid of their revilings.
8 For the moth shall eat them like a garment,/
and the worm shall eat them like wool./
But my righteousness shall be forever,/
and my salvation from generation to generation."
9 Awake, awake, put on your strength,/
O arm of the LORD./
Awake, as in the ancient days,/
in the generations of old./
Is it not you who cut Rahab/
and wounded the dragon?
10 Is it not you who dried the sea,/
the waters of the great deep,/
who has made the depths of the sea a way/
for the ransomed to pass over?
11 Therefore, the redeemed of the LORD shall return/
and come with singing to Zion,/
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head./
They shall obtain gladness and joy./
Sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 "I, even I, am he who comforts you./
Who are you, that you should be afraid/
of a man who shall die,/
and of the son of man/
who shall be made as grass,
13 That you forget the LORD your maker,/
who has stretched forth the heavens/
and laid the foundations of the earth,/
and that you have feared continually every day/
because of the fury of the oppressor,/
as if he were ready to destroy?/
And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hastens so that he may be released./
He shall not die in the pit,/
neither shall his bread fail.
15 But I am the LORD your God/
who divided the sea, whose waves roared./
The LORD of hosts is his name.
16 And I have put my words in your mouth/
and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,/
so that I may plant the heavens,/
lay the foundations of the earth,/
and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'"
17 Awake, awake,/
stand up, O Jerusalem,/
which have drank from the hand of the LORD/
the cup of his fury./
You have drank the dregs of the cup of trembling/
and wrung them out.
18 There is no one to guide her/
among all the sons whom she has brought forth,/
neither is there any who takes her by the hand/
of all the sons whom she has brought up.
19 There are two things that have come to you/
(who shall be sorry for you?):/
they are desolation and destruction,/
famine and the sword./
By whom shall I comfort you?
20 Your sons have fainted./
They lie at the head of all the streets/
like a gazelle in a net./
They are full of the fury of the LORD,/
the rebuke of your God.
21 Now therefore, hear this, you afflicted/
and drunken, but not with wine.
22 Thus says your Lord Yahweh,/
and your God who pleads the cause of his people:/
"Behold, I have taken out of your hand/
the cup of trembling,/
even the dregs of the cup of my fury./
You shall no longer drink it again.
23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,/
who have said to your soul/
'Prostrate yourself so that we may go over.'/
And you have laid your body like the ground,/
like the street for those passing by."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 51[➚]