Isaiah 51:17-23

New International Reader's Version

The Cup of the Lord’s Great Anger

¹⁷Wake up, Jerusalem!
    Wake up! Get up!
The Lord has handed you the cup of his great anger.
    And you have drunk from it.
That cup makes people unsteady on their feet.
    And you have drunk from it to the very last drop.
¹⁸Among all the children who were born to you
    there was none to guide you.
Among all the children you brought up
    there was none to lead you by the hand.
¹⁹Nothing but trouble has come to you.
    You have been wiped out and destroyed.
    And you have suffered hunger and war.
No one feels sorry for you.
    No one can comfort you.
²⁰Your children have fainted.
    They lie helpless at every street corner.
    They are like antelope that have been caught in a net.
They have felt the full force of the Lord’s great anger.
    Jerusalem, your God had to warn them strongly.

²¹So listen to me, you suffering people of Jerusalem.
    You have been made drunk, but not by drinking wine.
²²Your Lord and King speaks.
    He is your God.
He stands up for his people. He says,
    “I have taken from you the cup of my great anger.
    It made you unsteady on your feet.
But you will never drink
    from that cup again.
²³Instead, I will give it to those who made you suffer.
    They said to you,
‘Fall down flat on the ground.
    Then we can walk all over you.’
And that is exactly what you did.
    You made your back like a street to be walked on.”