Isaiah 51:23 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 51:23
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
hand
בְּיַדbe.yad-
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
afflict
מוֹגַ֔יִךְmo.Ga.yikh
H3013
to grieve · verb, hiphil active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
said
אָמְר֥וּ'a.me.Ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
soul
לְנַפְשֵׁ֖ךְle.naf.Shekh
H5315
properly · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
down
שְׁחִ֣יshe.Chi
H7812
to depress · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
over
וְנַעֲבֹ֑רָהve.na.'a.Vo.rah
H5674
to cross over · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive construct, 1st person common plural
laid
וַתָּשִׂ֤ימִיva.ta.Si.mi
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
body
גֵּוֵ֔ךְge.Vekh
H1460
the back · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
ground
כָאָ֙רֶץ֙kha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
street
וְכַח֖וּץve.kha.Chutz
H2351
properly · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
over
לַעֹבְרִֽיםla.'oe.Rim
H5674
to cross over · preposition with the article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
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
Joshua 10:24 And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains…
Zechariah 12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and aga…
Psalms 65:11-12 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.
Proverbs 11:8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.
Proverbs 21:18 The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright.
Isaiah 49:25-26 But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will co…
Jeremiah 25:15-29 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…
Revelation 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tre…
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…
(Isa 49:26; Jer 25:15-29; Zac 12:2).
Bow down that . . . go over--Conquerors often literally trod on the necks of conquered kings, as Sapor of Persia did to the Roman emperor Valerian (Jos 10:24; Psa 18:40; Psa 66:11-12).
Zion long in bondage (Isa 51:17-20) is called to put on beautiful garments appropriate to its future prosperity.
Next: Isaiah Chapter 52
John Gill on Isaiah 51:23
And I will put it into the hand of them that afflict me,.... As the Lord did to literal Babylon, Jeremiah 25:15, so will he do to mystical Babylon; he will retaliate upon her all the evils she has done to others, and destroy them that destroyed the earth; see Revelation 11:18,
which have said to thy soul, bow down, that we may go over; who not only afflicted the bodies, but tyrannized over the souls and consciences of men; obliging them to a compliance with their idolatrous practices, to bow down and worship the beast, and his image; and thereby acknowledge subjection to the see of Rome, and its authority over them: the allusion seems to be the custom of the eastern kings trampling upon the…
And I will put it into the hand of thy oppressors. This is another part of the consolation, in which he promises that the Lord will not only deliver the Church from those heavy distresses, but will also lay upon her enemies the calamities with which she is afflicted. If therefore we are afflicted, [36] our condition will be speedily changed, and our enemies will be severely punished. Truly, as Paul says, it is righteous with God to render tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest along with us, when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven, with the angels of his power, with flame of fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of…
The Church Fathers
He has indicated both the arrogance of the enemies and the distress of the city. He says, If you had requested my alliance, you would have prevailed over those who waged war on you; but since you did not want to do this, you have been abased even to the level of the ground.
Hence another prophet says concerning unclean spirits: Who said to your soul, Bow down that we may pass over. For the soul stands upright when it desires heavenly things, and is by no means bent toward the lowest things. But when malign spirits see it standing in its uprightness, they cannot pass through it. For their passing through is to scatter unclean desires upon it. Therefore they say, Bow down that we may pass over, because if the soul does not cast itself down to desiring the lowest things, their perversity by no means prevails against it; and they cannot pass through her whom they fear standing rigid against them in heavenly intention.
Of these enemies, indeed, it is said through the prophet: "They say to your soul: Bow down, that we may pass over." For the soul standing upright is sublime, bowed down it is lowly, because through the height of virtues and through heavenly desire it is raised to lofty things; but when it falls away to vices or to love of the world, it falls to that place where the enemy, rushing in, easily tramples it. They say therefore to your soul, "Bow down, that we may pass over," because if they do not humble it to doing or thinking earthly things, they neither penetrate it with malign persuasions nor disturb it with the warfare of vices. From this, therefore, we can gather how far we ought to distance ourselves from the world in deed, word, and thought.
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
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.…
Drunkenness · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Jews, The · Denunciations against those who: Oppressed — Denunciations against those who: Oppressed
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).
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…
The tormentors were the Babylonians who brought about destruction, war, and famine (51:19).
Rashi on Isaiah 51:23
those who cause you to wander Heb. מוֹגַיִךְ. Those who cause you to wander and those who cause you to move. Comp. (I Sam. 14:16) “And the multitude was wandering (נָמוֹג),” krosler in O.F.
Bend down and let us cross on your back.
