Isaías 51

VBL · Chapter 51/66

1Escúchenme, los que siguen la justicia y adoran al Señor. Piensen en la roca de la que fueron cortados, y en la cantera de la que fueron cincelados.

2Miren a Abraham, su padre, y a Sara, que los dio a luz. Cuando lo llamé, era un solo hombre, pero luego lo bendije y tuvo muchos descendientes.

3El Señor cuidará de Sión y se compadecerá de todos sus lugares arruinados. Hará que su desierto sea como el Edén, y sus zonas desérticas como el jardín del Señor. La gente allí tendrá alegría y felicidad, dando gracias y cantando dulces canciones.

4Presta atención a mí, pueblo mío; escúchame, nación mía: Enviaré mi ley, y mi justicia será una luz para las naciones.

5Pronto llegará mi gobierno de justicia. Viene mi salvación. Mi poder traerá el juicio a las naciones. Las tierras lejanas me esperan a mí y a mi poder.

6Mira a los cielos y mira a la tierra de abajo. Los cielos desaparecerán como el humo, la tierra se desgastará como la ropa vieja. Los pueblos que la habitan morirán como moscas, pero mi salvación durará para siempre, y mi camino de bondad y de derecho nunca será destruido.

7Escúchame, tú que sabes lo que es correcto y que realmente has aceptado mis enseñanzas. No tengan miedo de los insultos de la gente -sólo son humanos- ni se asusten por su lenguaje abusivo.

8Las polillas se los comerán como si fueran ropa; los insectos los masticarán como si fueran lana. Pero mi bondad durará para siempre, mi salvación perdurará por todas las generaciones.

9¡Por favor, despierta, despierta! ¡Usa tu fuerza, poderoso Señor! Actúa como en los viejos tiempos, en las generaciones anteriores. ¿No fuiste tú quien cortó a Rahab en pedazos, ¿quién mató a ese monstruo marino?

10¿No fuiste tú quien secó el mar, abriendo un camino a través de las aguas profundas para que los redimidos pudieran cruzar?

11Los que el Señor ha liberado volverán cantando al entrar en Jerusalén, llevando coronas de alegría eterna. Les invade el agradecimiento y la alegría; la pena y la tristeza simplemente desaparecen.

12Soy yo, sí, el que te consuela. ¿Por qué has de temer a los mortales que mueren como la hierba?

13¡Te has olvidado del Señor, tu Hacedor, que extendió los cielos y que puso los cimientos de la tierra! Por eso tiemblas de miedo todo el día, porque te amenaza la ira de los que te oprimen, queriendo destruirte. Pero, ¿dónde están ahora tus opresores y su ira?

14Los prisioneros que están postrados pronto serán liberados. No van a morir; no seguirán pasando hambre.

15Porque yo soy el Señor, tu Dios, que agita el mar para que rujan sus olas. El Señor Todopoderoso es su nombre.

16Yo te he dicho lo que tienes que decir, y te he protegido con mi mano. Yo creé los cielos y fundé la tierra, y le dije a Sión: Tú eres mi pueblo.

17¡Despierta, despierta! ¡Levántate, Jerusalén! Has bebido de la copa de la ira del Señor que te entregó. La has apurado hasta el fondo de la copa, la bebida que hace tambalear a la gente.

18De todos tus hijos que tuviste, no queda ninguno que te guíe. De todos los hijos que criaste, no hay ninguno que te lleve de la mano.

19Dos tragedias te han golpeado: la devastación causada por el hambre y la destrucción causada por la guerra. ¿Quién va a simpatizar contigo? ¿Quién te va a consolar?

20Tus hijos se han derrumbado, tirados en todas las calles como antílopes atrapados en una trampa. Han experimentado toda la ira del Señor, la condena de vuestro Dios.

21Así que escuchen esto, pobres, sentados allí en estado de embriaguez, pero no por haber bebido vino.

22Esto es lo que dice tu Señor, tu Dios, que defiende la causa de su pueblo: Mira, te he quitado la copa que te hacía tambalear. Nunca más tendrás que beber de esa copa, la copa de mi ira.

23En cambio, daré esa copa a quienes los atormentaban, a los que les decían: Túmbense boca abajo para que podamos pasarles por encima. Tuvieron que poner sus espaldas como el suelo, como una calle por la cual transitar.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God invites the people to look to Abraham and Sarah, showing that from a single couple he multiplied a great nation, and promises the same kind of restoration for Zion. He comforts Jerusalem, who has already drunk the 'cup of his fury,' saying that cup will now pass to her oppressors.

Explanation

Remembering Abraham and Sarah — who were barren and elderly when God promised to multiply them — serves as an argument for hope: if God could create an entire nation from a childless couple, he can certainly restore an already-existing nation, even one that has been destroyed. The repeated image of the "cup of fury" that Jerusalem drank represents the suffering of divine judgment, but it is now passed on to those who oppressed the people, a reversal of justice. The chapter also revisits the language of "cutting Rahab in pieces" and "drying up the sea," recalling both creation and the Exodus as proofs of God's power to deliver. The application today is to remember God's past faithfulness as a foundation for hope in present challenges, even when the situation seems impossible to reverse.

Fun facts

  • The reference to "cutting Rahab in pieces" (v.9) again uses the name of a mythological sea monster (similar to Leviathan in chapter 27), here used poetically to describe the deliverance from Egypt at the crossing of the Red Sea.
  • The metaphor of the "cup of fury" passed from hand to hand among nations is picked up later in texts such as Jeremiah 25 and Revelation 14, becoming a recurring image of divine judgment throughout biblical tradition.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Isaías 51:1Looking at the rock and the pit from which they were dug out tells the people to remember Abraham and Sarah, the first of the line, as a quarry of origin. It’s a way of saying “where they came from” to reinforce that whoever multiplied a single couple can multiply the people again.
  2. Isaías 51:2Looking to Abraham and Sarah is a reminder of origin: they started out alone, with no child at all, and yet multiplied by God’s promise. It’s an argument of hope for a people reduced by exile.
  3. Isaías 51:3Comparing Zion’s wilderness to Eden, the original garden of creation, is the ultimate image of restoration in the book: not just rebuilding, but a return to an original state of abundance and joy.
  4. Isaías 51:4“Law” and “judgment” going forth from God “for a light of the people” repeats the idea already used with the Servant in chapters 42 and 49: Israel’s message reaches beyond the people’s own borders.
  5. Isaías 51:5The “isles” that wait upon God’s arm repeat the language already used in chapters 41 and 42 for distant nations, reinforcing that the righteousness announced here carries international expectation.
  6. Isaías 51:6Heavens vanishing like smoke and earth wearing out like a garment describe the end of everything that seems permanent in the physical world, a deliberate contrast with the promise that God’s salvation lasts forever.
  7. Isaías 51:7Calling the people “ye that know righteousness” and having the law “in whose heart” it is describes an internal, not merely external, commitment, laying the ground for the following counsel not to fear human mockery.
  8. Isaías 51:8Repeating the image of the moth eating a garment, already used in verse 6 for the heavens and the earth, now applied to human oppressors, reinforces that any persecution also has an expiration date.
  9. Isaías 51:9Rahab and the dragon here are not real animals: they are names for a chaos monster that appeared in ancient Near Eastern myths to represent the forces of the sea. The prophet uses these familiar cultural images to speak, in fact, of God’s victory at the crossing of the Red Sea.
  10. Isaías 51:10Asking whether it was not this same God who dried up the sea for the redeemed to cross retakes the crossing of the Red Sea once again, a historical anchor repeated in the book to justify confidence in a new deliverance.
  11. Isaías 51:11This verse repeats almost word for word the ending of chapter 35, functioning as a refrain of hope that appears more than once in the book to describe the triumphant arrival at Zion.
  12. Isaías 51:12“I, even I, am he that comforteth you” contrasts God’s permanence with the frailty of “a man that shall die,” questioning why the people fear human oppressors more than they trust this comfort.
  13. Isaías 51:13The question “where is the fury of the oppressor?” suggests that fear of the oppressor, however real in the moment, will lose its meaning once that specific threat finally passes.
  14. Isaías 51:14“The captive exile” being quickly set free, not dying in the dungeon nor going hungry, promises a swift and dignified end to the situation of captivity, unlike the fear of an inescapable prison.
  15. Isaías 51:15Repeating “that divided the sea” returns to the same Exodus image used in the previous verses, once again reinforcing God’s historical credentials as an argument for trusting the present promise.
  16. Isaías 51:16“I have put my words in thy mouth” describes someone, probably the prophet or the people, receiving the mission to speak in God’s name, tied here to the task of declaring to Zion that she is still the chosen people.
  17. Isaías 51:17The cup full of God’s fury is the wine cup the people had to drink to the very last drop, an image of complete punishment. It reappears a few verses later, when God promises to take this cup out of Jerusalem’s hands.
  18. Isaías 51:18Describing Zion with no one to guide her or hold her hand among her own children is an image of total helplessness, a situation that contrasts with the care promised in the earlier verses of the chapter.
  19. Isaías 51:19Desolation, destruction, famine, and sword form a list of four disasters that struck the city all at once, so severe that the text asks who would be left to offer comfort.
  20. Isaías 51:20Comparing the fainting children to a wild bull caught in a net describes the people caught by surprise with no way out during the punishment, the image of a trap from which there is no escaping alone.
  21. Isaías 51:21“Drunken, but not with wine” repeats the same image from chapter 29, using drunkenness as a metaphor for the dazed, confused state of someone who has suffered so much punishment they can no longer react properly.
  22. Isaías 51:22The “cup of trembling” and the “dregs of the cup of my fury” pick up again the image of punishment drunk to the last drop; here comes the good news that this specific cup will not be drunk anymore.
  23. Isaías 51:23Placing the cup into the hands of the oppressors, who once trod on the people’s backs as though they were the ground, reverses the situation: now it is they who will suffer the same kind of punishment they inflicted.

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