Chapter Fifty-One

The present chapter 51 constitutes one continuous narrative with the following chapter 52, which is why many exegetes usually consider and examine them together.

In terms of its content, this new section of Isaiah’s prophetic speeches presents, as it were, a certain, if not contradiction, then in any case a major variety compared with the preceding one (chapters 48-50): in the latter, the prophet predominantly addressed unbelieving Israel; in the present, on the contrary, the prophet addresses faithful Israel and seeks to encourage and comfort it in the impending trials and disappointments by pointing to the subsequent glorification and triumph that will follow them. However, both in the earlier section and in the one under examination, various fates of historical Israel serve the prophet merely as a starting point for his speeches; their main subject is the future fates of spiritual Israel, that is, the messianic age and the New Testament Church. “This prophecy (chapter 51) is preceded by an introduction having the character of an oratorical address and divided in turn into three parts: verses 1-2, 4-6, 7-8, each of which begins with the words: ‘Hear Me’ (Commentary, St. Petersburg Professor, page 789).”

1-3. The God-given comfort of His faithful Zion. 4-6. The enlightenment of all peoples through it. 7-16. The triumph of Zion over enemies and its eternal spiritual joy under the protection of the Almighty. 17-23. The restoration of Jerusalem by God and the divine recompense to its enemies.

Isa 51:1-3. The first appeal to faithful Israel and the first comfort of it, based on a historical example taken from the life of the very father of believers—Patriarch Abraham. Just as the patriarchal couple—Abraham and Sarah—were once alone and aged, so that, by the laws of nature, had already lost all hope of offspring, and yet, by God’s will, became the ancestors of the entire Jewish nation, so, by the same Divine help, Zion, now lying in ruins and representing a lonely, wild waste, can be transformed into a luxurious garden and a flourishing paradise.

Isaiah 51:1. Hear Me, those who pursue righteousness, and those who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. “Hear Me, those who pursue righteousness, those who seek the Lord!” Who and to whom is speaking here? Since the beginning of this speech is not separated in any way from the preceding one, it must be supposed that here too the speaker is either the Most High Himself, or His Messenger, as they spoke in the preceding chapter; moreover, the Messiah in His deeds and words, ultimately, merges with the Most High God of the Covenant. The persons to whom this speech is directed are named more specifically—“those who pursue righteousness, those who seek the Lord.” Under “those who pursue righteousness and those who seek the Lord,” in the language of Holy Scripture, are understood persons who strive to arrange their lives in exact accordance with the Divine law (verse 7) and thereby achieve both personal righteousness and closeness to the ideal of Highest Justice—the Lord Himself (Ps 33:15; Prov 15 and others). Concerning them the one beatitude speaks under the name “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt 5:6; Matt 6:33). “The One who speaks these words connects the coming Kingdom of God’s Justice with the promises given to Abraham and Sarah. Israel, their descendant, is represented figuratively as hewn from a barren rock and born from a dry pit. But just as from the barren (by common laws) forefathers God was pleased to create a numerous people, so they will multiply and be blessed, all who seek the Lord and His righteousness. And let their faith be strengthened by remembrance of the father of believers.” (Vlastov, page 277. Cf. Gal 3:16-29).

Isaiah 51:3. Therefore the Lord will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of singing. “Therefore the Lord will comfort Zion.” The Hebrew verb noaham standing here is used in the past tense. This is the customary perfectum propheticum among the prophets: this same verb occurs very frequently in the prophet Isaiah in exactly the same form (Isa 40:1; Isa 49:3; Isa 51:12; Isa 52 and others). “And He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be in her, thanksgiving and the voice of singing.” Although Nebuchadnezzar, in conquering Jerusalem, did leave for the poor vineyards and fields (2 Sam 25:12 and Jer 52:16), the population preserved was so small that it was unable to cultivate the land, so that Jerusalem and its surroundings indeed, with time, came to resemble “a wild desert” (Ezek 36:34). As for the colors with which the rebirth of Zion is depicted, all these images—“deserts turned into gardens,” “songs resounding in the night of the sacred festival” and others—should be recognized as very characteristic of the prophet Isaiah and equally typical of both parts of his book (See Isa 29:17; Isa 30:25-29; Isa 32:15-19; Isa 33:17; Isa 35:1-10; Isa 40 chapters and others). It should also be noted the prophet’s mention of “paradise,” or “garden” of God. He compares the future blessedness of Zion with it, as with something already long and well known to all. Consequently, even if we admit, in accord with the rationalists, the very latest origin of the book of the prophet Isaiah, that is, in the epoch of the Babylonian captivity, even then we could not justify Delitzsch’s hypothesis that the legend of paradise was supposedly borrowed by the Hebrews from the Babylonians. If anything like this really existed, the prophet Isaiah in no case could yet refer to the history of paradise as something already long known to all. Hence it is clear that the history of paradise is far older than both the prophet Isaiah himself and the epoch of the Babylonian captivity.

Isaiah 51:4. Hear Me, My people, and give ear to Me, My nation: for a law shall go forth from Me, and I will make My justice a light to the peoples. The second appeal, specifically to the chosen people of God, or, more precisely, to the best representatives of it; the argument for the appeal here is the marvelous manifestations of Divine Justice, which will soon appear as a source of salvation and light for all who believe in it, and which will have eternal, unceasing significance. “Hear... give ear to Me!” Such persistence in the appeal points to the special importance of what is being pronounced. “For a law shall go forth from Me and I will make My justice a light to the peoples.” The concepts of “justice” and “law” in the language of Holy Scripture have their technical meaning and are almost synonymous: “justice” is the revelation, the disclosure of the judging and justifying Divine will, that is, the same Divine law, but in a more general form—both written and unwritten. Justice and law are here spoken of in the future tense, which, based on the context of the speech, we must take literally. Consequently, here is given a prophecy of some special and extraordinary future revelation of Divine will, having universal, universal, and eternal significance (verse 6).

Isaiah 42:1. “Here is pointed to the spiritual law of the Gospel, which shall come forth from Zion, and not that which was once given by Moses on Sinai” (Blessed Jerome). Earlier the prophet assigned this mission “to establish justice” among the islands and “to kindle light” in the revelation to the nations to His Son, the Messiah (saying “Behold, My Servant”; Isaiah 42:1, 4, 6), consequently, the subject of the speech here is the same Person! Apparently, it was not something other than these same passages that Simeon the God-receiver had in mind in his famous prayer (Luke 2:29-31). Isaiah 51:5. My righteousness is near, My salvation is gone forth, and My arms shall judge peoples; the coastlands will wait upon Me, and on My arm they will trust. “My righteousness is near; My salvation goes forth, and My arm shall judge the nations.” According to the property of Hebrew speech full of parallelism, all three images standing here refer to one and the same subject, namely, that which in the preceding verse is designated as the new “justice” and “universal light,” that is, evangelical teaching and law. Here it is considered and defined from three sides: as “righteousness”—the highest criterion of Divine Justice and the source of human justification before God; as “salvation”—freely given to us for the sake of the cross of the Savior of the world; and finally, as the strong “arm” of the Lord, that is, as that touchstone or stone by which the religious-moral disposition of mankind will be tested and which will for some serve as a stone of salvation and justification, for others will appear a stone of offense and stumbling (Luke 2:34). Since prophetic visions are not limited by the bounds of our earthly perspective, it is not surprising that of an event distant not less than 5-7 centuries, the prophet speaks as of one already near and soon coming, which he repeats also in other cases, especially when the subject is messianic times (Isa 50:8; Isa 56:1). The indication of the strong arm of the Lord, apparently, has yet the sense that it as it were guarantees the inevitability of the execution of Divine plans, since God is powerful to remove all obstacles to it and to destroy all enemies (Isa 40:10; Isa 49:24-25 and others).

Isaiah 41:1. “The coastlands shall wait upon Me.” Regarding justice over the “coastlands,” their justification and salvation, the prophet has already spoken in detail above (see our comments on Isaiah 41:1, 5; Isa 42:4; Isa 49:1). Isaiah 51:6. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth below: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it shall die in like manner; but My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not fail. “Lift up your eyes to the heavens... and My salvation shall be forever.” In this verse is given a strong assurance of the immutability of God’s plans for human salvation. It very much reminds us of the well-known saying of the Savior: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matt 5:18; Luke 21:33). At the same time, in them is implied (implicite) the understanding that the eternal “Kingdom of God” that is to be revealed in time has, by its nature, a spiritual character; it is not bound by absolute ties to the present sensible world, but has its own independent significance, since it will continue to exist even after its destruction (cf. Isa 40:8; Isa 50:9; Matt 24:35; 2 Pet 3:13; Heb 1:11; Rev 21 and others). Isa 51:7-8. The third appeal of the Messiah to His listeners, who on this occasion are already named as having seized that righteousness about the striving toward which was mentioned earlier (verse 1). The present appeal passes, properly speaking, into comfort or encouragement of those who were troubled to follow the Servant because of false shame of public opinion, that is, that majority of Israel which rejected the Messiah.

Isaiah 51:7. Hear Me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law: do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. “Hear Me, those who know righteousness, O people in whose heart is My law.” In the repeated appeals of the prophet to his listeners there is a kind of gradation—a gradual ascent from the lower to the higher: and now he reaches the very top of his ladder and speaks to a people already knowing “Righteousness” and bearing the law written on the tablets of its own heart. And these very names in Holy Scripture ordinarily designate the workers of the New Testament Kingdom—believing Christians (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:10-12). “Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults.” In all probability, the prophet is here speaking of those reproaches and mockeries to which those who believed in Christ among the Jewish minority were subjected by their fellow tribesmen, the vast majority of whom did not recognize Christ as the Messiah and mocked both the Savior Himself and His faithful followers (Matt 27:39-42; 1 Cor 1:23). But, of course, the meaning of this prophecy can be extended much more broadly, referring it to all those of whom the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’... Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake” (Matt 5:10-11). And this, according to the apostle, will befall the common fate of all Christians, since “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Tim 3:12). Some are inclined to see the historical fulfillment of this prophecy in the persecutions that the early Church endured from Roman society and the state (Bp. Peter).

Isaiah 51:8. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation. “For the moth will eat them up like a garment... and My righteousness shall be forever.” A powerful image of the complete worthlessness of human schemes before the greatness of Divine Almightiness (Isa 34:4). Isa 51:9-11. A new section of prophetic speech, in which the prophet, on behalf of all the wronged and persecuted, cries out with strong voice to God for help. The Christian Church, at the beginning of its establishment, is threatened by no less grievous calamities than the Old Testament theocracy in the first period of its history (the Exodus from Egypt). And just as the Old Testament Church came forth victorious from these calamities only through extraordinary acts of Divine Almightiness, so the New Testament Church lives by faith in that same power.

Isaiah 51:9. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the serpent? “Did You not cut Rahab in pieces, did You pierce the serpent?” The Septuagint and Slavic have: “Did You not overcome the proud and break the serpent in pieces?” All this are epithets of the Egyptian Pharaoh for his pride (Exod 5:2) and possession of the Nile basin (Ezek 29:3; cf. also Ps 88:11). In an allegorical sense, all this are symbolic images of Satan and his minions, whom the arm of the Lord has vanquished (Ps 67:22-24).

Isaiah 51:11. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, and everlasting joy shall be on their heads.” The prophet sees the prayer of the preceding verse already fulfilled: believing Zion will be delivered by God from all its sufferings and will taste eternal joy. It cannot be overlooked that the depiction of this joy repeats and intensifies the thought of verse 3 of the same chapter. Although it must be said generally, that the prophecy of deliverance and salvation from God, as a source of eternal joy and greatness, is one of the most characteristic of the book of the prophet Isaiah in all its composition (Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12; Isa 10:4; Isa 11:1; Isa 35:10; Isa 43:1; Isa 44:22; Isa 49:7 and others). Isa 51:12-13. Contain a rebuke to the faint-hearted and short-sighted people who fear human insignificance, but forget the power of Divine Almightiness and lose hope in heaven.

Isaiah 51:12. I, I am He who comforts you. Who are you that you fear a mortal man, and the son of man who is made like the grass? “I, I am He who comforts you.” Earlier the prophet Isaiah repeatedly called the Lord Himself the comforter of Zion (Isa 49:13; Isa 51:3); evidently the Messiah speaking here, in essence, is not different from God. If we juxtapose this passage with its nearest parallels from the same prophet (Isa 11:1-2; Isa 48:16) and illuminate all this with the New Testament light, namely the words of the Lord Himself: “the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26); then we will obtain a profound expression of the mystery of the Trinity of Persons, in the unity of their Divine Essence.

“Psalm 8. “Who are you, that you fear a man who dies, and the son of man who becomes like grass?” The parallelism of the images “man” and “son of man” very reminds us of a similar one in the Psalms, Psalm 8 and Ps 143:3. And the comparison of the brief and fleeting glory and power of man with grass, besides the Psalms (Ps 102:15), occurs repeatedly in the prophet Isaiah himself (Isa 37 and Isa 40:6-8).” Isaiah 51:13. And you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth; and you live in constant fear all day of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were about to destroy. But where is the fury of the oppressor? “And you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth.” A powerful contrasting juxtaposition: people daily tremble before the temporal and apparent power of some human insignificance, but thoroughly forget the actual power of Creative Almightiness. The teaching about God as the Almighty Creator of the world is also very characteristic of the prophet Isaiah (Isa 40:22; Isa 42:5; Isa 44:24; Isa 45:12 and others).

Isaiah 51:14. The captive exile shall quickly be loosed, and shall not die in the pit, nor shall his bread fail. This gives confirmation of the thought of God’s coming salvation. Perhaps it speaks of Egyptian captivity and the hardships of Israel during its wandering in the Arabian Desert (quails, manna); but more probably, it is simply an image of any difficult condition, taken from the customs of that time to deal harshly with captives (to keep them in dungeons and starve them). Isa 51:15-16. A solemn repeated promise of the intercession and help of God to His faithful Zion.

Isaiah 51:15. I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar: the Lord of hosts is His name. “I am the Lord your God... the Lord of hosts is His name.” Here is the basis for you to rely on Me and for Me to help you: for I am the Almighty and Omnipotent God of yours, and you are My chosen people (cf. Isa 54:5).

Isaiah 51:16. And I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Zion, “You are My people. “I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you with the shadow of My hand.” Here more fully are revealed the providential relations of the Lord to Israel. In one of the most important messianic prophecies of the Pentateuch (Deut 18:18), the beginning of this verse—“I have put My words in His mouth”—is laid out almost literally and referred to the personality of the Great Prophet, in the likeness of Moses, that is, to the Messiah Himself. From this we can conclude that the repetition of these words also describes events of the messianic age. “To establish the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’” All these images in which the Divine help to the new Zion is depicted (“I cover you with the shadow of My hand,” “to establish the heavens” and “lay the foundations of the earth”), involuntarily remind us of analogous facts from the initial history of the Old Testament theocracy (guidance by “the pillar of fire,” granting of “the land of Canaan”). Actually, the new promises were fulfilled when the Gospel of the Kingdom of God was openly revealed to believers (“My word in your mouth”) and when they were recognized as “children of God” (John 1:12), “a holy people,” “the people of God” (1 Pet 2:9-10).

Isaiah 51:17. Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath, the dregs of the cup of trembling, and have drained it. From verses 17-23 begins a new prophetic speech, continued and concluded by all the subsequent chapter. The reason for placing the beginning of the new speech at the end of this chapter was apparently their close kinship in content and character. The circle of prophetic comforts gradually, as it were, closes and becomes narrower and narrower: first the prophet addressed all of Israel (chapter 48), then to the chosen representatives of it (chapter 51), and now he appeals to Jerusalem alone—the spiritual-political center and focal point of faithful Zion. “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem.” The repetition of well-known words, apart from its general sense—to emphasize the importance of what is being said and to draw especially close attention to it—has among the prophet Isaiah yet another purpose—to serve as the boundary of new sections of his speeches (cf. Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12; Isa 10:4; Isa 48:22; Isa 57:21; as well: Isa 5:8; Isa 22:1; Isa 23:1; Isa 28:1; Isa 30:1; Isa 38:1; Isa 51:1).

Isaiah 51:18. Among all the sons she has borne, there is none to guide her; and among all the sons she has brought up, there is none to take her by the hand. “You... have drunk the cup of His wrath... no one to guide her... among all the sons she brought up.” By the cup of God’s wrath which Jerusalem drank to the end, is understood the cup of calamities and sufferings, which God has permitted for the sins of its inhabitants and for their admonition (cf. Ps 74:9). By the sons of Jerusalem who rendered him no support in the critical moment, Saint Cyril of Alexandria understands the responsible leaders of the Jewish people—its priests, Levites, and scribes,—who, according to the words of the Savior, “took away the key of knowledge” (Luke 11:52), but neither themselves were saved nor do they save others (Matt 23 chapter). In particular, this complete impotence of the people’s leaders was manifested during the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, when the internecine struggle and intrigues of the so-called “zealots” contributed to the fall of the city more than the Roman siege itself and led to the development of terrible calamities in it (Josephus Flavius).

Isaiah 51:19. Two calamities have befallen you, who will console you? Desolation and destruction, famine and sword, who will comfort you? “Two calamities have befallen you... desolation and destruction, famine and sword.” Judging by the strong colors with which the sad fate of Jerusalem is here depicted, the prophecy has in view not so much the near captivity of it by Nebuchadnezzar as a more distant and more terrible destruction of it by Titus.

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 fury of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. “Your sons are faint and lie like an antelope in a net.” The repetition of the same thought about the utter confusion and helplessness of the population of Jerusalem. The last comparison attracts attention, which according to the Septuagint reads quite differently: “like a well-cooked beet.” Blessed Jerome explains this by the fact that the Septuagint translated the Hebrew word “tho”—which means “antelope”—as the Syriac “thoveth,” which means “beet.” But the first translation is more correct and it has its analogy in the prophet himself (Isa 13:14).

Isaiah 51:21. Therefore hear this, you afflicted, and drunk but not with wine. “Therefore hear this, afflicted one, drunken, but not from wine.” Direct appeal to Jerusalem, already having drunk the cup of suffering. The last image—“you are drunk, but not from wine”—again occurs literally in the prophet Isaiah in the first part (Isa 29:9).

Isaiah 51:22. Thus says your Lord, the Lord, and your God, who pleads the cause of His people: Behold, I have taken the cup of trembling from your hand, the dregs of the cup of My wrath; you shall no longer drink it. Isaiah 51:23. And I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, “Bow down, that we may pass over you,” and you made your back like the ground, and like the street for those passing by. Isaiah 8:9–10. Just as after joyful news the prophet Isaiah customarily hastens to make a warning, so after sorrowful news he offers comfort. To the people of Israel after a certain ordeal in purifying historical sufferings is promised, first, liberation from enemies (verse 22); and second, even punishment of these very enemies (verse 23). “War, peoples, but tremble” once cried out the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 8:9-10), that is, carry out, meanwhile—unhindered impulsions of your evil and corrupted heart. But remember that God, who transforms all your evil to good, will sooner or later call you to account and will make you drink the vial of His wrath also (cf. 8, 10, 14 and Isa 49:26 chapter, as well as Rev 16 chapter). * * * Quail; Editor’s note.