This chapter, together with Isaiah 52:1-12, is one connected portion, and injury has been done by separating it. It is a part of Isaiah of exquisite beauty, and is a most suitable introduction to the important portion which follows Isaiah 52:13-15; Isaiah 53:1-12 respecting the Messiah. This is designed chiefly to comfort the Jews in their exile. They are regarded as in Babylon near the close of their captivity, and as earnestly desiring to be rescued. It is somewhat dramatic in its character, and is made up of alternate addresses of God and his people - the one urging the strong language of consolation, and the other fervent petitions for deliverance. The following analysis will give a correct view of the chapter:
I. God addresses them in the language of consolation, and directs them to remember the founder of their nation, and assures them that he is able also to deliver them Isaiah 51:1-3.
1. He speaks of them as pious, and as seeking the Lord Isaiah 51:1.
2. They were to remember Abraham and Sarah - the quarry, so to speak, from which the nation had been hewed; they were to remember how feeble they were, and yet how God had made a great nation of them, and to feel assured that God was equally able to conduct them forth and to multiply them into a great nation Isaiah 51:1-2.
3. A direct promise that God would comfort Zion, and make it like Eden Isaiah 51:3.
II. God calls upon his people to hearken to him, with the assurance that he would extend the true religion even to the Gentile world, and that his salvation should be more permanent than were the heavens Isaiah 51:4-6.
1. He would make his religion a light to the Jewish people Isaiah 51:4. Though now in darkness, yet they should be brought forth into light.
2. He would extend it to the isles - to the pagan world Isaiah 51:5.
3. It should be everlasting. The heavens should grow old and vanish, but his salvation should not be abolished Isaiah 51:6.
III. God assures them that they have no reason to despond on account of the number and power of their enemies. However mighty they were, yet they should be consumed as the moth eats up a garment, and as the worm consumes wool Isaiah 51:7-8.
IV. The people are introduced as calling upon God, and as beseeching him to interpose as he had done in former times in their behalf Isaiah 51:9-10. In this appeal they refer to what God had done in former periods when he cut Rahab, that is, Egypt, in pieces, and delivered his people, and they cry to him to interpose in like manner again, and to deliver them.
V. To this petition Yahweh replies Isaiah 51:11-16 He assures them -
1. That his redeemed shall return with joy and triumph Isaiah 51:11.
2. He that had made the heavens was their comforter, and they had nothing to fear from man, or the fury of any oppressor Isaiah 51:12-13.
3. The captive exile was soon to be unloosed, and they hastened that they might be restored; that is, it would soon occur Isaiah 51:14.
4. Yahweh, who had divided the sea, was their protector. He had given them a solemn promise, and he had covered his people with the shadow of his hand, and he would defend them Isaiah 51:15-16.
VI. The chapter closes with a direct address to Jerusalem, and with assurances that it shall be rebuilt, and that it would he no more visited with such calamities Isaiah 51:17-23.
1. The calamities of Jerusalem are enumerated. She had drunk the cup of the fury of Yahweh; she had been forsaken of those who were qualified to guide her; desolation and destruction had therefore come upon her; her sons had fainted in the streets, and had drunk of the fury of God Isaiah 51:17-20.
2. God promises deliverance. She was drunken, but not with wine. God had taken out of her hand the cup of trembling, and she should no more drink it again; he would put that cup into the hand of those who had afflicted her, and they should drink it Isaiah 51:21-23.