Matthew Henry Commentary Isaiah 51:17-23

"Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, that hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his wrath; thou hast drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she hath brought up. These two things are befallen thee, who shall bemoan thee? desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine: Thus saith thy Lord Jehovah, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; thou shalt no more drink it again: and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, that have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou hast laid thy back as the ground, and as the street, to them that go over." — Isaiah 51:17-23 (ASV)

God calls upon his people to be mindful of the things that belong to their everlasting peace. Jerusalem had provoked God, and was made to taste the bitter fruits. Those who should have been her comforters were their own tormentors. They have no patience to maintain possession of their own souls, nor any confidence in God's promise to maintain possession of its comfort.

You are drunk, not as before, with the intoxicating cup of Babylon's idolatries, but with the cup of affliction. Know, then, that the cause of God's people may for a time seem lost, but God will protect it, by convincing the conscience or confounding the projects of those who strive against it.

The oppressors required souls to be subjected to them, so that everyone would believe and worship as they dictated. But all they could gain by violence was that people were brought to outward hypocritical conformity, for consciences cannot be forced.