Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; you have drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath; thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
Awake! awake! up! O Jerusalem, you who have taken from the Lord's hand the cup of his wrath; tasting in full measure the wine which overcomes.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drank at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drank the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
The cup of trembling - כוס התרעלה cos hattarelah, "the cup of mortal poison," veneni mortiferi. - Montan. This may also allude to the ancient custom of taking off criminals by a cup of poison. Socrates is well known to have been sentenced by the Areopagus to drink a cup of the juice of hemlock, which occasioned his death. See the note on Hebrews 2:9, and see also Bishop Lowth's note on Isaiah 51:21.
Awake, awake - (See the notes at Isaiah 51:9). This verse commences an address to Jerusalem under a new figure or image. The figure employed is that of a man who has been overcome by the cup of the wrath of Yahweh, that had produced the same effect as inebriation. Jerusalem had reeled and fallen prostrate. There had been none to sustain her, and she had sunk to the dust. Calamities of the most appalling kind had come upon her, and she is now called on to arouse from this condition, and to recover her former splendor and power.
Which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord - The wrath of Yahweh is not unfrequently compared to a cup producing intoxication. The reason is, that it produces a similar effect. It prostrates the strength, and makes the subject of it reel, stagger, and fall. In like manner, all calamities are represented under the image of a cup that is drunk, producing a prostrating effect on the frame. Thus the Saviour says, 'The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?' (John 18:11; compare Matthew 20:22-23; Matthew 26:39, Matthew 26:42). The effects of drinking the cup of God's displeasure are often beautifully set forth. Thus, in Psalm 75:8 :
In the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and the wine is red;
It is full of a mixed liquor, and he poureth out of the same,
Verily the dregs thereof all the ungodly of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.
Plato, as referred to by Lowth, has an idea resembling this. 'Suppose,' says he, 'God had given to men a medicating potion inducing fear; so that the more anyone should drink of it, so much the more miserable he should find himself at every draught, and become fearful of everything present and future; and at last, though the most courageous of people, should become totally possessed by fear; and afterward, having slept off the effects of it, should become himself again.' A similar image is used by Homer (Iliad, xvi. 527ff), where he places two vessels at the threshold of Jupiter, one of good, the other of evil. He gives to some a mixed potion of each; to others from the evil vessel only, and these are completely miserable:
Two urns by Jove's high throne have ever stood
The source of evil one, and one of good;
From thence the cup of mortal man he fills,
Blessings to these; to those distributes ills.
To most he mingles both: The wretch decreed
To taste the bad unmix'd, is curs'd indeed;
Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven,
He wanders, outcast by both earth and heaven:
continued...
51:17 Awake - Heb. Rouse up thyself: come out of that forlorn condition in which thou hast so long been. Stand up - Upon thy feet, O thou who hast been thrown to the ground. Drunk - Who hast been sorely afflicted. The cup - Which strikes him that drinks it with deadly horror.And wrung - Drunk every drop of it.