Isaiah 51:20

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. THE SONS HAVE FAINTED, THEY LIE AT THE HEAD OF ALL THE STREETS - (; .) AS A WILD BULL IN A NET - rather, the oryx (Jerome), or a gazelle (Gesenius), or wild goat (Bochart); commonly in the East taken in a net, of a wide sweep, whereinto the beasts were hunted together. The streets of cities in the East often have gates, which are closed at night: a person wishing to escape would be stopped by them and caught, as a wild animal in a net....

20._Thy sons have fainted. _He describes more fully the lamentable and wretched condition of the Church, when he says that her children he prostrate. A mother cannot be visited with any grief more bitter than to have her children slain before her eyes, and not one or two of them, but so great a number as to fill the roads with the slaughter. _As a wild bull in a net. _The metaphor is taken from bears or other savage animals, by which he means that even the strongest of them have, as it were, been caught in snares. _Full of the indignation of Jehovah. _By this expression he distinctly states that none of these events are accidental, lest they should suppose that any of them has happened by chance, or lest they should accuse the Lord of cruelty for having punished them severely; because his judgment is just and righteous. This is what he means, when he says that this punishment has procee...

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...

Verse Isaiah 51:20. _AS A WILD BULL IN A NET: THEY ARE FULL, C. _- "Like the oryx taken in the toils drenched to the full"] "Perhaps מכמרה מלאים _michmerah meleim_." SECKER. The demonstrative ה _he_, prefixed to מלאים _meleim, full_, seems improper in this place....

THY SONS - Jerusalem is here represented as a mother. Her sons, that is, her inhabitants, had become weak and prostrate everywhere, and were unable to afford consolation. THEY LIE AT THE HEAD OF ALL THE STREETS - The ‘head’ of the streets is the same which in Lamentations 2:19; Lamentations 4:1, is denominated ‘the top of the streets.’ The head or top of the streets denotes, doubtless, the beginning of a way or street; the corner from which other streets diverge. These would be public places, where many would be naturally assembled, and where, in time of a siege, they would be driven together. This is a description of the state produced by famine. Weak, pale, and emaciated, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in the places of

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....

THY SONS HAVE FAINTED,.... Through want of food, or at the desolation made, and have no spirit in them to appear in the interest of true religion: THEY LIE AT THE HEAD OF ALL THE STREETS; emaciated by famine, and not able to walk, but drop down in the streets, and there lie panting and pining away; or slain by the enemy; or with the famine, and the sword, as Aben Ezra, and none to bury them; so the dead bodies of the witnesses shall lie in the street of the great city unburied, Revelation 11:8 AS A WILD BULL IN A NET; that is slain, being taken; or, if alive, however it flings about and struggles, cannot extricate itself: so it may denote such that survive the calamity, yet held under the power of the enemy; and though inwardly fretting, and very impatient, cannot help themselves, no more than such a creature taken in a toil or net; which Aben Ezr

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....

THY SONS HAVE FAINTED. Note the _Alternation_ in this verse. Thus: "fainted at the head", &c, and "they lie as. wild bull", &c....