Isaiah 51:17-20

The description of Jerusalem's degradation. The rhythm is that of the qínah, and the resemblances to the book of Lamentations are so striking that Ewald has conjectured that the passage is taken from one of the elegies composed during the Exile.

Awake Better Arouse thee (Cheyne); the verb being a reflexive as distinct from the simple "Awake" of Isaiah 52:1 (and Isaiah 51:9).

which hast drunk … the cup of his fury The image of the cup of the Divine wrath originated in Jeremiah's great vision of judgement (ch. Jeremiah 25:15 ff.), where the prophet hands the cup to all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. Cf. also Jeremiah 49:12; Habakkuk 2:16; Ezekiel 23:31-34; Lamentations 4:21; Obadiah 1:16; Revelation 14:10.

the dregs of the cup of trembling R.V. the bowl of the cup of staggering. "Dregs" is a mistaken Jewish rendering of a word (qubba-ath), found only here and in Isaiah 51:22. It means undoubtedly a "bowl" or "chalice," and the pleonasm "bowl of the cup" has probably arisen through the common word for cup being added as an explanatory gloss.

of trembling of intoxication. Psalms 60:3 (A.V. "wine of astonishment").

and wrungthem out drained (cf. Ezekiel 23:34) an asyndetic construction in the Hebr. "hast drunk, hast drained," i.e. "hast drunk to the dregs." The whole clause reads:

Thou who hast drunk from Jehovah's hand the cup of His wrath, The chalice of intoxication hast thou drunk to the dregs.