Awake, &c.— Rouse, rouse,—cup of reeling, and drained them out: Isaiah 51:18. There is none to lead her along among all the sons, &c.: Isaiah 51:19. Those two things are come unto thee, (who can sufficiently lament thee?) desolation and destruction; even famine and sword: How shall I comfort thee! Isaiah 51:20. Thy sons have fainted away: they lie, &c. as a stag in a net. Vitringa supposes that the ancient church, delivered from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, and which was in immediate expectation of the kingdom of the Messiah, is here addressed. He describes this church figuratively, as intoxicated to the highest degree of stupidity by her enemies; compelled to drink the very dregs of the cup, that none of the wine might be lost; and at last left, more like a dead person than a living one, in the street, to be trodden upon by all, and her very sons, by whom she ought to be carried home, and refreshed with water, lying drunken also in the street, Isaiah 51:20. It is very plain that the Christian church cannot be here addressed, because the afflictions here specified were those of anger and punishment. See Acts 2:13; Acts 2:15.
Related Commentaries of Isaiah 51:17
Isaiah 51:17-20
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.