Isaiah 51:17 Meaning and Explanation
“Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Jerusalem, having drained God's cup of wrath to its bitter end, is summoned to rise and shake off the dust of exile.
The Context of Isaiah 51:17
In exile, Israel's judgment has reached its completion. The prophet addresses Jerusalem personified as a woman lying prostrate, her punishment now finished.
What Does Isaiah 51:17 Mean?
A cup filled to the brim with God's fury: this image captures the totality of Jerusalem's suffering under judgment. She has drunk not merely a sip but the entire vessel, down to the dregs, the thick sediment of bitterness. The verb 'wrung' suggests she has extracted every last drop, as if squeezing a cloth. Yet this very completion marks a turning point: you cannot drink what is no longer there. The cup that held divine wrath is emptied.
The call to awake and stand echoes across our own lives whenever we have tasted the hard consequences of sin. We know that cup. But Christ drank it too, at Gethsemane and Golgotha, that we might never need drink it again. In Him, our judgment is finished. We rise not by our own strength but by the One who emptied that cup for us.
Isaiah 51:17 in the Original Language
kos (Hebrew cup), a vessel of judgment throughout Scripture, used elsewhere for Sodom's punishment (Genesis 18), for the Psalmist's suffering (Psalm 23:5), and for the cup Jesus feared in the Garden (Matthew 26:39).
Where Isaiah 51:17 Echoes in Scripture
The cup metaphor recurs at Isaiah 51:22, where God takes the cup from Jerusalem, and in Matthew 26:39-42, where Jesus drinks the cup of wrath we deserved.
How to Apply Isaiah 51:17 Today
When we have faced consequences for our failures and see them through to their end, that completion is a sign that healing can begin. We do not remain forever under judgment. But we must rise, shake ourselves awake, and step forward into the restoration that waits.