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.
Ver. 17. Awake, awake.] Suscita te, suscita te. As the Church had stirred up the arm of the Lord to awake, Isa 51:9 so here he doth the Church, cheering her up, and, as it were, drinking to her in a cup of nepenthe, after her bitter cup of gall and aloes, which she had drunk to drunkenness, and had none to guide her, Isa 51:18 as a drunken man had need to have.
That hast drunk at the hand of the Lord.] Herein happy yet, that God had a hand in the mingling of thy cup; who, being a wise and gracious physician and father, would be sure not to overdo; for "he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust." Psa 103:14
The cup of his fury.] Or, His cup of poison; Deuteronomy 32:24 ; Deu 32:33 so thou mistakest it, and therefore sputterest as if poisoned indeed. Lam 3:19
Thou hast drunk the dregs.] Crassamentum, that thick stuff that settleth in the bottom, and usually is reserved for the worst of wicked ones, Psa 75:8 while the saints sip only of the top of the cup. a See Ezekiel 23:1,49; Ezekiel 34:1,31 .
Of the cup of trembling.] Poeuhtm horrifieentissimum bibisti, exsuxisti, The cup of concussion or horror, as a just punishment of thy cup of slumbering and security, wherein thou hadst before caroused. Isa 29:9-10
a Illud tantrum bibunt quod est suavius et limpidius; est propemodum proverbialis locutio "bibere calicem," pro eo quod est perferre adversa. - Hyper.