Isaiah 51:19-23

The Message

^17-20 So wake up! Rub the sleep from your eyes!
    Up on your feet, Jerusalem!
You’ve drunk the cup God handed you,
    the strong drink of his anger.
You drank it down to the last drop,
    staggered and collapsed, dead-drunk.
And nobody to help you home,
    no one among your friends or children
    to take you by the hand and put you in bed.
You’ve been hit with a double dose of trouble
    —does anyone care?
Assault and battery, hunger and death
    —will anyone comfort?
Your sons and daughters have passed out,
    strewn in the streets like stunned rabbits,
Sleeping off the strong drink of God’s anger,
    the rage of your God.

^21-23 Therefore listen, please,
    you with your splitting headaches,
You who are nursing the hangovers
    that didn’t come from drinking wine.
Your Master, your God, has something to say,
    your God has taken up his people’s case:
“Look, I’ve taken back the drink that sent you reeling.
    No more drinking from that jug of my anger!
I’ve passed it over to your abusers to drink, those who ordered you,
    ‘Down on the ground so we can walk all over you!’
And you had to do it. Flat on the ground,
    you were the dirt under their feet.”