The Cup of Staggering
17 Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. 18 There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up. 19 These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you? 20 Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God. 21 Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more. 23 I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
A city lies drunk in the street with nobody to help her up, and the cup is taken out of her hand.
Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
The people told God to wake up; now the command comes back to them. And the state they are told to get up from is drunkenness — the cup of wrath, drained to the sediment.
There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons whom she has brought up.
The loneliest verse in the section. A woman who cannot walk straight, in the street, and not one of the children she raised will come and take her arm. The verse says it twice, in the two ways it could be said, and the emphasis falls on all the sons — there were plenty of them.
These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you?
The question in the middle asks who will mourn with her, and the one at the end is harder to place. It is God asking how he is to comfort someone in this condition — and the fifty-second chapter is the answer.
Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God.
A trapped animal exhausts itself thrashing and then lies still. The picture is of young men collapsed at every intersection.
Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
The distinction matters. This is not a city that drank itself into the gutter for pleasure; it was handed the cup.
Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more.
The cup is removed by the one who gave it, and the promise is that it does not come back. Where it goes next is the following verse — into the hand of those who afflicted her.
I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
The last image is of prisoners made to lie face down so that the victors could walk across them, which Assyrian reliefs depict. The back that was made a road is the reason the cup changes hands.
settled What this mark means