Isaiah 51:19

These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
two	שְׁתַּ֤יִם she.Ta.yim	H8147	two · cardinal number, feminine dual absolute
come	קֹֽרְאֹתַ֔יִךְ ko.re.'o.Ta.yikh	H7122	to encounter · verb, qal active participle, feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
sorry	יָנ֣וּד ya.Nud	H5110	to nod · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
desolation	הַשֹּׁ֧ד ha.Shod	H7701	violence · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
destruction	וְהַשֶּׁ֛בֶר ve.ha.She.ver	H7667	a fracture · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
famine	וְהָרָעָ֥ב ve.ha.ra.'Av	H7458	hunger (more or less extensive) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sword	וְהַחֶ֖רֶב ve.ha.Che.rev	H2719	drought · conjunction + definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
comfort	אֲנַחֲמֵֽךְ 'a.na.cha.Mekh	H5162	properly · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Isaiah 47:9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perf…
Amos 7:2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by wh…
Job 2:11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, an…
Job 42:11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread wit…
Psalms 69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I…
Ecclesiastes 4:1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had…
Isaiah 14:30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay th…
Isaiah 22:4 Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 51:17–end

God, having awoke for the comfort of his people, here calls upon them to awake, as afterwards, Isa 52:1. It is a call to awake not so much out of the sleep of sin (though that also is necessary in order to their being ready for deliverance) as out of the stupor of despair. When the inhabitants of Jerusalem were in captivity they, as well as those who remained upon the spot, were so overwhelmed with the sense of their troubles that they had no heart or spirit to mind any thing that tended to their comfort or relief; they were as the disciples in the garden, sleeping for sorrow (Luk 22:45), and therefore, when the deliverance came, they are said to have been like those that dream, Psa 136:1. N…

Read the whole note in the console

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 51:19

two--classes of evils, for he enumerates four, namely, desolation and destruction to the land and state; famine and the sword to the people. who shall be sorry for thee--so as to give thee effectual relief: as the parallel clause, "By whom shall I comfort thee?" shows (Lam 2:11-13).

John Gill on Isaiah 51:19

These two things are come unto thee,.... Affliction from the hand of God, though by means of enemies, and no friends to help, support, and comfort, as before hinted: or else this respects what follows, after it is said, who shall be sorry for thee? lament or bemoan thee? they of the earth will rejoice and be glad, and others will not dare to show any concern outwardly, whatever inward grief may be in their breasts, Revelation 11:10, desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword; which may be the two things before mentioned, for though there are four words, they are reducible to two things, desolation, which is the sword, and by it, and destruction, which is the famine, and com…

Read the whole note in the console

John Calvin on Isaiah 51:19

These two things have happened to thee. Nearly the same thing was already asserted concerning Babylon, "These two things shall befall thee suddenly in one day, childlessness and widowhood." (Isaiah 47:9.) But here Isaiah promises to the Church that there shall eventually be a different issue; for the Lord will rescue her from the deepest abyss. He threatens extreme wretchedness, that believers may gird themselves for patience, and not cease to send upwards prayers and supplications from the depth of their distresses. The general meaning is, that the Church shall be burdened with afflictions of every kind, so that she shall appear to be on the brink of utter ruin; because from without she s…

The Church Fathers

"These two things have befallen you," that is, they have befallen you because of your sins. You have abandoned God, and you have followed the idols; that is why two punishments have come over you, "famine and sword," because "devastation" comes from the sword and "destruction" from famine.
— Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 51:19

By "two," he means the bravery of the adversaries and the desertion of the auxiliaries: while the former attack with courage, the others flee in a cowardly fashion. "Downfall and destruction." He has again presented two calamities: that of falling and that of being crushed. For sometimes a person falls without being struck. "Famine and sword." Again a double chastisement: if the first make a siege from the city of the outside, even harder to endure than the enemies was the famine that was within, annihilating them.
— Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.19

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Drink, strong — (Heb. shekar’), an intoxicating liquor (Judg. 13:4; Luke 1:15; Isa. 5:11; Micah 2:11) distilled from corn, honey, or dates. The effects of the use of strong drink are referred to in Ps. 107:27; Isa.…
Isaiah, Book Of — I. Chapters 1-5 contain Isaiah’s prophecies in the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, foretelling that the present prosperity of Judah should be destroyed, and that Israel should be brought to desolation.…
War · Often attended by: Famine — Often attended by: Famine

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Isaiah 51:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 51:17–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 51:19

John Gill on Isaiah 51:19

John Calvin on Isaiah 51:19

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Isaiah 51:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 51:17–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 51:19

John Gill on Isaiah 51:19

John Calvin on Isaiah 51:19

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Isaiah 51:17–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Isaiah 51:17-23

Rashi on Isaiah 51:19