What Does Isaiah 51:21 Mean?
Therefore hear and respond now to this, you who are bowed low, and drunk, but not with wine.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:THE KEY
The staggering here is the effect of affliction, not a confession of wine or a verdict on the one who reels.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as afflicted and drunk without wine: overwhelmed enough to reel, yet still spoken to directly. “Hear now this” meets you inside that disorientation; you do not have to become clear before a word can reach you. The next verse names the cup in your hand and says it is being taken away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being overwhelmed does not mean you have failed or chosen your suffering; this verse names your disorientation as affliction and speaks to you within it.
THE ROOT
עֲנִיָּה
ʿaniyyah
GROWS FROM
עָנָה
ʿ-n-h
to afflict, oppress, or humble
“bowed low” in this verse is ʿaniyyah. This word family gathers the afflicted person, poverty, and affliction under one seed, naming a condition that presses a person down. The verse speaks to you from within that condition instead of waiting for it to disappear.
ALSO GROWS
ʿani: a poor or afflicted person
עָנִי
It shows that “afflicted” belongs to a wider word family of being brought low.
ʿoni: affliction or misery
עֳנִי
The same root names both the person who suffers and the suffering itself.
שְׁכֻרַת
shekhurat
GROWS FROM
שכר
sh-k-r
to become drunk or intoxicated
“drunken” in this verse is shekhurat. The root names intoxication itself, while its branches name strong drink and drunkenness. Since the verse says “not with wine,” it uses the language of intoxication for staggering that has another source; the next verse identifies the cup behind it.
ALSO GROWS
shekhar: strong drink
שֵׁכָר
This branch names the drink that the verse explicitly rules out as the cause.
shikkaron: drunkenness or intoxication
שִׁכָּרוֹן
It shows the state of being drunk as a word-family meaning, even when wine is absent.
שִׁמְעִי
shimʿi
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
to hear, heed, and respond
“hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿi. The feminine command calls the afflicted one to hear now, while she is still reeling. This hearing carries the possibility of response: the verse begins with a word reaching her inside the disorientation.
ALSO GROWS
shemiʿah: hearing or listening
שְׁמִיעָה
It connects the command to the act of giving attention.
shemuʿah: a report or message heard
שְׁמוּעָה
It shows that hearing receives something spoken, as this verse addresses the afflicted one.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses intoxication and staggering to name disorientation that can come from forces other than wine.
Linger and be stunned; stare and stare! They are drunk, but not from wine; they reel, but not from strong drink.They reel and stagger like a drunken man, and all their wisdom is swallowed up.Thus says your Lord, the LORD, and your God, who contends for his people. Look, I have taken from your hand the cup of reeling, the dregs of the cup of my burning. You shall not go on drinking it.THE THREAD
Thus says your Lord, the LORD, and your God, who contends for his people. Look, I have taken from your hand the cup of reeling, the dregs of the cup of my burning. You shall not go on drinking it.The next verse names a cup in your hand and says it is being taken away. The image turns your staggering into an effect of what you have been made to drink, not a defect in you.
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