a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
fainted
עֻלְּפ֥וּ'u.le.Fu
H5968
to veil or cover · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person common plural
lie
שָׁכְב֛וּsha.khe.Vu
H7901
to lie down (for rest · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
head
בְּרֹ֥אשׁbe.Rosh
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
streets
חוּצ֖וֹתchu.Tzot
H2351
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
bull
כְּת֣וֹאke.To'
H8377
a species of antelope (probably from the white stripe o… · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
net
מִכְמָ֑רmikh.Mar
H4364
a (hunter's) net (as dark from concealment) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
full
הַֽמְלֵאִ֥יםham.le.'Im
H4392
full (literally or figuratively) or filling (literally) · definite article + adjective, masculine plural absolute
fury
חֲמַתcha.mat-
H2534
heat · noun, common feminine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
rebuke
גַּעֲרַ֥תga.'a.Rat
H1606
a chiding · noun, common feminine singular construct
God
אֱלֹהָֽיִךְ'e.lo.Ha.yikh
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + 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
Lamentations 2:11-12 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; b…
Revelation 16:9-11 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give hi…
Deuteronomy 14:5 The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois.
Psalms 88:15-16 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
Isaiah 5:25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and…
Isaiah 8:21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themse…
Isaiah 9:19-21 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother…
Isaiah 29:9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
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…
head of all . . . streets-- (Lam 2:19; Lam 4:1).
wild bull--rather, "oryx" [JEROME], or gazelle [GESENIUS], or wild goat [BOCHART]; commonly in the East taken in a net, of a wide sweep, into which the beasts were hunted together. The streets of cities in the East often have gates, which are closed at night; a person wishing to escape would be stopped by them and caught, as a wild animal in a net.
John Gill on Isaiah 51:20
Thy sons have fainted,.... Through want of food, or at the desolation made, and have no spirit in them to appear in the interest of true religion:
they lie at the head of all the streets; emaciated by famine, and not able to walk, but drop down in the streets, and there lie panting and pining away; or slain by the enemy; or with the famine, and the sword, as Aben Ezra, and none to bury them; so the dead bodies of the witnesses shall lie in the street of the great city unburied, Revelation 11:8.
as a wild bull in a net; that is slain, being taken; or, if alive, however it flings about and struggles, cannot extricate itself: so it may denote such that survive the calamity, yet held under the…
By the slumber, he has indicated their indolence, and by the cooked vegetables their laxness. But what he adds is even harsher than what he has said before: "They that are full of the anger of the Lord are caused to faint by the Lord God." By their iniquity they draw my anger, and by reason of my anger, they are deprived of my kind attention and despoiled of every kind of strength.
(Verse 20.) Your sons are cast out, they have slept at the head of all the streets, like a trapped wild goat: full of the indignation of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. LXX: Your sons are destitute and sleeping at the head of all the streets: like a half-cooked beet, full of the fury of the Lord, and lacking from the Lord your God. As for the half-cooked beet, the remaining interpreters translated it as a captured and trapped wild goat, which is called 'Tho' in Hebrew, a type of wild animal found in the wilderness, listed among the clean animals in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The Syriac language they have translated as thoreth, which means beta. Let us pass over the name and consider the meaning of it. Your sons, like wild oxen caught in snares, have slept in the streets and public squares, placing their naked bodies on the bare ground, thereby revealing the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of their God, indicating their own misery. Furthermore, according to the Seventy: those who do not desire spiritual riches in every word, knowledge, and good work, but choose to be poor and not endure the threat, will by no means dwell in the houses that are built with virtues, but will remain at the beginning of the roads and at the exit, touching everything and leaving everything behind. Those who are said to sleep well in that sleep, of which it is written: They have slept their sleep and found nothing (Ps. 75:6). In that sleep, the Assyrian king has put them to sleep. And they are compared to half-cooked beets, which are a type of vegetable that is very cheap and fragile. About these vegetables, I believe that it is said in the Psalms: Do not be jealous of evildoers, nor envy those who do iniquity. For like grass, they will quickly wither, and like the green vegetables, they will quickly fall (Ps. 36:1, 2). For it is the food of the sick. He who is once unbelieving is called raw beetroot. But he who is content with simple faith, without reason and the truth of doctrines, performs the works of justice, can be called cooked beetroot. Furthermore, he who fluctuates between vices and virtues, and approaches the service of God with a double heart, is most rightly called half-cooked beetroot, of whom God speaks in the Apocalypse of John: Would that you were either hot or cold: but because you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out (Rev. III, 15, 16). Those who are lukewarm…
Dictionary and topics
Bull, Bullock — terms used synonymously with ox, oxen, and properly a generic name for horned cattle when a full age and fit for the plough. It is variously rendered “bullock,” (Isaiah 65:25) “cow,” (Ezekiel 4:15)…
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.…
Hunting — Mentioned first in Gen. 10:9 in connection with Nimrod. Esau was “a cunning hunter” (Gen. 25:27). Hunting was practised by the Hebrews after their settlement in the “Land of Promise” (Lev. 17:15;…
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.…
Bull · Wild, — Wild,
Net · Wild animals — Wild animals
Ox, The · Bull or bullock illustrative: (In a net,) of the impatient under judgment — Bull or bullock illustrative: (In a net,) of the impatient under judgment
Reproof · God gives, to the wicked — God gives, to the wicked
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).
Thy sons have fainted. He describes more fully the lamentable and wretched condition of the Church, when he says that her children he prostrate. A mother cannot be visited with any grief more bitter than to have her children slain before her eyes, and not one or two of them, but so great a number as to fill the roads with the slaughter.
As a wild bull in a net. The metaphor is taken from bears or other savage animals, by which he means that even the strongest of them have, as it were, been caught in snares.
Full of the indignation of Jehovah. By this expression he distinctly states that none of these events are accidental, lest they should suppose that any of them has happened by chance, o…
Just as we found above, that the exclamation "awake" (‛ūrı̄), which the church addresses to the arm of Jehovah, grew out of the preceding great promises; so here there grows out of the same another "awake" (hith‛ōrerı̄), which the prophet addresses to Jerusalem in the name of his God, and the reason for which is given in the form of new promises. "Wake thyself up, wake thyself up, stand up, O Jerusalem, thou that hast drunk out of the hand of Jehovah the goblet of His fury: the goblet cup of reeling hast thou drunk, sipped out. There was none who guided her of all the children that she had brought forth; and none who took her by the hand of all the children that she had brought up. There w…
children have fainted: A sad commentary on Jerusalem’s desolation is provided in Lamentations 1:13, 22; 2:11-12, 19.
Rashi on Isaiah 51:20
fainted Heb. עֻלְּפוּ. An expression of faintness. Comp. (Amos 8:13) “The...virgins shall faint (תִּתְעַלַּפְנָה) from thirst.” Pasmer in O.F., (pamer in Modern French).
like a wild ox in a net Abandoned like this wild ox that falls into a net. Comp. (Deut. 14:5) “And the wild ox (וּתְאוֹ) and the giraffe.”
