What Does Isaiah 51:22 Mean?
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.
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
Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:THE KEY
The one pleading your cause is the one who takes the cup from your hand.
THE MEANING
You are not left alone with what is in your hand: the LORD takes up your cause and removes the cup, down to its dregs. Its cycle ends; the cup of fury does not define an endless future for you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what you have been made to drink must be drained again and again because it is already in your hands.
THE ROOT
תַּרְעֵלָה
tar'elah
GROWS FROM
רעל
ra'al
To reel or stagger, to lose steadiness.
The cup is named for the unsteady state it produces: reeling, as if drunk. What English calls trembling is a portion that leaves you unable to stand steady, and here that portion is taken away.
ALSO GROWS
ra'al: To reel or stagger.
רָעַל
The verb gives the cup’s effect a bodily image: losing steadiness.
tar'elah: Reeling or staggering.
תַּרְעֵלָה
The noun names the state the cup produces; its removal ends that reeling.
יָרִיב
yariv
GROWS FROM
ריב
riv
To contend, bring a case, or plead.
“contends for” in this verse is yariv. The Hebrew verb describes entering a contest over a case, not simply offering sympathy. The one who pleads your cause also removes the cup, joining advocacy to release.
ALSO GROWS
riv: A dispute, case, or contention.
רִיב
The word can name the very case the LORD takes up for his people.
merivah: Contention or strife.
מְרִיבָה
This branch shows the active conflict carried by the root: the LORD steps into what is contested on your behalf.
THE PATTERN
A cup names a portion held by someone, while its course remains in the hand of the one who governs it.
For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, and the wine foams, full and mixed; he pours from it, but its dregs, all the wicked of the earth, drain and drink.I lift the cup of deliverances, and in the nature of the LORD I call.And he went a little farther, and fell upon his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass by me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.THE THREAD
Awake, awake, rise, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his burning. You have drunk the dregs of the cup of reeling, and drained them.This verse names the condition with the same Hebrew noun תַּרְעֵלָה (tar’elah, reeling or staggering): Jerusalem has drunk the cup to its dregs. Verse 22 answers that image directly, the cup that left her reeling is lifted from her hand, and the drinking ends.
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