Biblion Bible Commentary
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Look to the Rock From Which You Were Cut
Isaiah 51:1-16
1 “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from. · WEB
A discouraged remnant is told to look at one childless couple, and the heavens are described as the thing that wears out.
Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from Isaiah 51:1.
The instruction is given to people who feel too few to matter, and the answer is archaeological: go and look at where you came from.
Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many Isaiah 51:2.
The quarry is a childless couple. The argument is arithmetical — a nation that began with one man has no business concluding anything from its present size — and Sarah is named, which is rare.
For Yahweh has comforted Zion... and has made her wilderness like Eden Isaiah 51:3.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment... but my salvation will be forever Isaiah 51:6.
The two things a person points to when they want an image of permanence are named as the things that will go first. Smoke disperses; a coat wears through at the elbows. What is offered as the stable term of the comparison is a salvation.
Don't fear the reproach of men, and don't be dismayed at their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment Isaiah 51:7–8.
The same image applied to the people doing the mocking, and it is the chapter's practical point: the insult outlives the insulter by very little.
Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh!... Isn't it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? Isaiah 51:9.
The people answer back and tell God to wake up. The prayer is bold and the book prints it, and what it appeals to is the exodus, described in the old vocabulary of the sea monster.
Those ransomed by Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion Isaiah 51:11.
The last verse of chapter thirty-five, repeated word for word. The road built at the end of the first half of the book is still there.
I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die? Isaiah 51:12.
The reply to awake, awake is I, even I — and then a question that measures the fear against its object. The oppressor is grass.
Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor? Isaiah 51:13.
The last clause is the sharpest thing in the chapter. The dread is described as continuous, all day, every day — and then the question: where is it, actually? The terror had been of something being prepared rather than something happening.
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