What Does Isaiah 51:17 Mean in the King James?
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.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Jerusalem is commanded to rise while still named as the one who has drunk the cup to its dregs.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as Jerusalem: you have drunk the LORD’s cup of fury to its dregs, and now hear the double call to wake and stand. The verse names the reeling without disguise and places standing beside what has been fully endured.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that drinking the full measure means you must remain collapsed: the one who has emptied the cup is still summoned to stand.
THE ROOT
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) with its dual ending, the two wholenesses. The address holds that nature alongside the suffering the verse names without softening it.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried within Jerusalem’s name.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
The same root describes the state of being whole, giving the name a nature beyond a place label.
קוּמִי
qūmî
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
To rise, stand, or be established.
“stand up” in this verse is qūmî. The command is a concrete call to take a standing position. The same root also gives words for establishing and place, so rising here is a return to standing after the cup leaves Jerusalem reeling.
ALSO GROWS
qûm: Rise, stand.
קוּם
This is the root action carried by the command to Jerusalem.
hēqîm: Raise, set up, establish.
הֵקִים
The root connects standing with being set firmly in place.
maqom: Place, standing place.
מָקוֹם
The word for place grows from the same root of standing or being established.
שָׁתִית
shātît
GROWS FROM
שתה
sh-t-h
To drink.
“drunk” in this verse is shātît. The verse repeats the drinking verb and then names the dregs that are wrung out. The cup is not merely held before Jerusalem; its contents are taken in to the last measure.
ALSO GROWS
shātāh: To drink.
שָׁתָה
This is the same drinking action expressed by the repeated verb in the verse.
mishtēh: Drinking feast, banquet.
מִשְׁתֶּה
The root can name an occasion organized around drinking, keeping the verse’s cup imagery concrete.
THE PATTERN
The cup makes judgment a portion that is drunk through, with its dregs marking the full measure.
For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:THE THREAD
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 next verse names the same cup and its dregs, then says they are taken out of Jerusalem’s hand. The one summoned to rise after drinking the full measure is told the cup will not be drunk again.
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