Awake,
awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
Isaiah 51:17
Isaiah 51 [12.] “I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die,
and of the son of man who will be made as grass?
Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker,
who stretched out the heavens,
and laid the foundations of the earth?
Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor,
when he prepares to destroy?
Where is the fury of the oppressor?
The captive exile will speedily be freed;
and he will not die and go down into the pit,
and his bread will not fail.
For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea,
so that its waves roar:
Yahweh of Armies is his name.
I have put my words in your mouth,
and have covered you in the shadow of my hand,
that I may plant the heavens,
and lay the foundations of the earth,
and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
Isaiah 51 [17.] Awake, awake!
Stand up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath.
You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering,
and drained it.
There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth;
and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.
These two things have happened to you—
who will grieve with you?—
desolation and destruction,
and famine and the sword.
How can I comfort you?
Isaiah 51 [20.] Your sons have fainted.
They lie at the head of all the streets,
like an antelope in a net.
They are full of the Yahweh’s wrath,
the rebuke of your God.
Therefore now hear this, you afflicted,
and drunken, but not with wine:
Thus says your Lord Yahweh,
your God who pleads the cause of his people,
“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering,
even the bowl of the cup of my wrath.
You will not drink it any more:
and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’
and you have laid your back as the ground,
like a street to those who walk over.”
Meaning:
This verse was spoken to Jerusalem after the disaster of the Babylonian conquest. The city lay in ruins and its people were scattered, like someone who has collapsed after drinking a cup of poison. Isaiah calls on Jerusalem to wake up, because God is about to act for her again.
- “Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem”
God calls his people to wake and stand. They have been lying stunned, but their judgment is ending.
- “The cup of his wrath”
In the Old Testament a cup often stands for what God gives a person or nation to experience. A cup of blessing means joy; a cup of wrath means judgment for sin. Jerusalem had turned away from God, and the fall of the city was his just judgment. The prophet says she has drunk “the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it”, every bitter drop. Revelation uses the same picture for final judgment (Revelation 14:10).
- The cup taken away
The passage (see Context above) ends with a wonderful promise: “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more.” God himself removes the cup from his people.
- The cup Jesus drank
This background explains Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane: “Please remove this cup from me” (Mark 14:36). He had asked James and John, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” (Mark 10:38). The cup was the judgment due to sinners. Jesus drank it in their place, so that it could be taken out of their hands for ever. Isaiah later says of the Servant, “The punishment that brought our peace was on him” (Isaiah 53:5).
The Significance of Isaiah 51:17
- Sin is serious
The image of a cup of staggering reminds us that sin brings real consequences and that God’s judgment is just.
- Rescue through a substitute
The good news is that the cup has been drained by another. Those who trust in Jesus wait for “Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
Cross-References:
Mark 14:36: "Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire." Jesus faces the cup.
Mark 10:38: "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" The cup of suffering.
Isaiah 53:5: "The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed." Judgment borne by the Servant.
Conclusion: Isaiah 51:17 calls the ruined city of Jerusalem to wake and stand, after drinking to the dregs the cup of God’s wrath. The verse uses the cup as a picture of judgment for sin, and the passage goes on to promise that God will take that cup away from his people. In Gethsemane Jesus prayed about this cup, and on the cross he drank it, so that all who trust him need never drink it.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible