Isaiah 51:18

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. (THERE IS) NONE TO GUIDE HER AMONG ALL THE SONS (WHOM) SHE HATH BROUGHT FORTH. Following up the image in , intoxicated and confused by the cup of God's anger, she has none to guide her in her helpless state: she has not yet awakened out of the sleep caused by that draught. This cannot apply to the Babylonian captivity; because in it they, had Ezekiel and Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, as 'guides,' and soon awoke out of that sleep; but it applies to the Jews now, and will be still more applicable in their coming oppression by Antichrist....

18._There is no one to guide her. _He describes the sorest calamity of the Church; for the heaviest and sorest of all undoubtedly is, that she receives no sympathy or consolation from her own children. This accumulated misery is described by him, in order that, though her condition be desperate, she may still expect consolation from God, who will never disappoint his servants, though they be sunk to the depth of hell. Although the Church has been forsaken by men, and even by those whom she nourished in her bosom and carried in her arms, yet she shall receive assistance from God. No affliction more severe can befall a mother than to be deserted by her children, who ought in their turn to have treated her with kindness. Such ingratitude and want of natural affection is certainly much liarder to bear than the violent and unbridled cruelty of enemies; for why does she give birth to children,...

17-23 God calls upon his people to mind the things that belong to their everlasting peace. Jerusalem had provoked God, and was made to taste the bitter fruits. Those who should have been her comforters, were their own tormentors. They have no patience by which to keep possesion of their own souls, nor any confidence in God's promise, by which to keep possession of its comfort. Thou art drunken, not as formerly, with the intoxicating cup of Babylon's idolatries, but with the cup of affliction. Know, then, the cause of God's people may for a time seem as lost, but God will protect it, by convincing the conscience, or confounding the projects, of those that strive against it. The oppressors required souls to be subjected to them, that every man should believe and worship as they would have them. But all they could gain by violence was, that people were brought to outward hypocritical confor...

THERE IS NONE TO GUIDE HER - The image here is taken from the condition of one who is under the influence of an intoxicating draught, and who needs some one to sustain and guide him. The idea is, than among all the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the time of the calamity, there was none who could restore to order the agitated and distracted affairs of the nation. All its wisdom was destroyed; its counsels perplexed; its power overcome. ALL THE SONS WHOM SHE HATH BROUGHT FORTH - All the inhabitants of Jerusalem....

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 51:1 AN ADDRESS TO FAITHFUL ISRAEL, SUGGESTING TOPICS OF COMFORT. The address consists of three nearly equal strophes or stanzas, each commencing with a call, _Shim'u elai_,_ _"Hearken unto me," or _Haqshibu elai_,_ _"Attend to me." The prophet appears to be the speaker, and to address himself to the more faithful portion of the people. ISAIAH 51:1 YE THAT FOLLOW AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS; _i.e. _"ye that endeavour to lead righteous lives" (comp....

THERE IS NONE TO GUIDE HER AMONG ALL THE SONS WHOM SHE HATH BROUGHT FORTH,.... Still alluding to drunken persons staggering in the streets, that can scarcely stand on their feet, and do not know their way, and yet have none to hold them up and guide them, not even of their friends and relations: NEITHER IS THERE ANY THAT TAKETH HER BY THE HAND OF ALL THE SONS THAT SHE HATH BROUGHT UP; to hold her up from falling, of which there is danger by reeling to and fro, through the intoxicating liquor; and this, either for want of sons, these being dead, or through want of filial affection in them. This was true of Jerusalem, literally understood, at the time of her last destruction by the Romans, when she had no king, priest, nor prophet, to counsel and direct, defend and protect her; and will be the case of the church of God at the slaying of the witnesses, when their own friends will be shy of...

CHAPTER 51 Jehovah Encourages His Faithful People, the Remnant of Israel 1. _The call to remember Abraham (Isaiah 51:1)_ 2. _Zion to be comforted (Isaiah 51:3)_ 3. _His righteousness near and His arm to judge the people (Isaiah 51:4)_ 4. _Fear ye not (Isaiah 51:7)_ 5. _The prayer of faith (Isaiah 51:9)_ 6. _Jehovah answers (Isaiah 51:12)_ 7. The suffering of the nation to end ...

ISAIAH 51:17 TO ISAIAH 52:12. THE SORROW OF JERUSALEM, WHICH SHALL GIVE PLACE TO JOY. Isaiah 51:17. The prophet, obviously familiar with the vision of Jeremiah 25:15, pictures Jerusalem as staggering under the stupefaction caused by the draught which Yahweh in His anger has compelled her to drink. Two pairs of evils (expressed in Heb. by word-plays) have befallen her, and who is there to comfort her (read who shall for how shall I with VSS). Under the fury of Yahweh her sons are like an antelope exhausted by its vain struggles in the net....

The description of Jerusalem's degradation. The rhythm is that of the _qínah_, and the resemblances to the book of Lamentations are so striking that Ewald has conjectured that the passage is taken from one of the elegies composed during the Exile. _Awake_ Better AROUSE THEE (Cheyne); the verb being a reflexive as distinct from the simple "Awake" of Isaiah 52:1 (and Isaiah 51:9). _which hast drunk … the cup of his fury_ The image of the cup of the Divine wrath originated in Jeremiah's great vision of judgement (ch. Jeremiah 25:15 ff.), where the prophet hands the cup to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. Cf. also...

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; comp