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Isaiah 51

1 To trust in God alone by Abraham’s example 7 Not to fear men. 17 The great affliction of Jerusalém, and her deliverance.
1.Hear me, ye athat follow after righteousness, and ye that seek the Lord: look unto the brock, whence ye are hewen, and to the hole of the pit, whence ye are digged.
2.Consider Abrahám your father, and Saráh that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
3.Surely the Lord shal comfort Zión: he shal comfort all her desolations, and he shal make her desert clike Eden, and her wilderness like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladness shalbe found therein: praise, and the voice of singing.
4.Hearken ye unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, ô my people, for a dLaw shal proceed from me, and I will bring forth my judgement for the light of the people.
5.My erighteousness is near · my salvation goeth forth, and mine farms shal judge the people: the yles shal wait for me, and shal trust unto mine arm.
6.Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the gheavens shal vanish away like smoke, and the earth shal wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein, shal perish in like maner: but my salvation shalbe for ever, and my righteousness shal not be abolished.
7.Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my Law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their rebukes.
8.For the moth shal eat them up like a garment, and the worm shal eat them like wool: but my righteousness shal be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9.Rise up. rise up, and put on strength, ô arm of the Lord: rise up, as hin the old time in the generations of the world. Art not thou the same, that hast cut iRahab, and wounded the kdragon?
10.Art not thou the same, which hath dryed the Sea, even the waters of the great deep, making the depth of the Sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
11.Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shal lreturn, and come with joy unto Zión, and everlasting joy shalbe upon their head · they shal obtain joy, and gladness: and sorrow and mourning shal flee away.
12.I, even I, am he, that comfort you. Who art thou, that thou shuldest fear a mortal man, and the son of man, which shalbe made as grass?
13.And forgetest the Lord thy maker, that hath spread out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? and hast feared continually all the day, because of the rage of the oppressour, which is ready to destroy? Where is now the rage of the oppressour?
14.The captive mhasteneth to be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
15.And I am the Lord thy God that divided the Sea, when his waves roared: the Lord of hostes is his Name,
16.And I have put my words in thy nmouth, and have defended thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the oheavens, and lay the foundation of the earth, and say unto Zión, Thou art my people.
17.Awake, awake, and stand up, ô Jerusalém, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the pcup of his wrath. thou hast drunken the dregges of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18.There is none to guide her among all the sons, whom she hath brought forth: there is none that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
19.These two qthings are come unto thee: who will lament thee? desolation and destruction, and famine, and the sword: by whom shal I comfort thee?
20.Thy sons have fainted, and lie at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in a net, and are full of the wrath of the Lord, and rebuke of thy God.
21.Therefore hear now this, thou miserable and drunken, but rnot with wine.
22.Thus saith thy Lord God, even God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregges of the cup of my wrath. thou shalt drink it no more.
23.But I will put it into their hand that spoil thee, which have said to thy soul , Bow down, that we may go over, & thou hast laid thy bodie as the ground, and as the street to them that went over.

Notes

1-a.
He comforts the Church, that they should not be discouraged for their small number.
1-b.
That is, to Abraham, of whom you were begotten, and to Sarah, of whom you were born.
3-c.
As plentiful as Paradise, Gen. 2.8.
4-d.
I will rule, and govern my Church by my word, and doctrine.
5-e.
The time, that I will accomplish my promise.
5-f.
My power, and strength.
6-g.
He forewarns them of the horrible changes and mutations of all things, and how he will preserve his Church in the midst of all these dangers.
9-h.
He puts them in remembrance of his great benefit for their deliver- ance out of Egypt, that thereby they might learn to trust in him constantly.
9-i.
Meaning, Egypt, Ps. 87.4.
9-k.
To wit, Pharaoh, Ex. 19.3.
11-l.
From Babylon.
14-m.
He comforts them by the short time of their banishment for in seventy years they were restored and the greatest empire of the world destroyed.
16-n.
Meaning, of Isaiah, and of all true ministers, who are defended by his protection.
16-o.
That all things may be restored in heaven, & earth, Eph. 1.10.
17-p.
You have been justly punished and sufficiently, as Ch. 40.2 and this punishment in the elect is by measure, & according as God gives grace to bear it: but in the reprobate it is just vengeance of God to drive them to an insensibleness and madness as Jer. 25.15.
19-q.
Whereof the one is outward, as of the things that come to the body, as war and famine and the other is inward, and appertains to the mind that is, to be without comfort therefore he says, how shall you be comforted.
21-r.
But with trouble and fear.