Isaiah 51:17

"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 who she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand among all the sons that she hath brought forth. These two things are befallen thee: who shall bemoan thee? desolation and destruction, and 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."

What a sad picture of God's people is presented here. The old Jerusalem is depicted as a drunken woman staggering about with an empty cup; the reason it is empty is that she has drunk it all; none of her sons can help her; all of them are also drunk, lying around on every street, and that is the reason they are unable to help their stricken mother in her pitiful humiliation.

This picture of the drunken sons of the chosen people, drunken not on wine, but upon their rebellion and apostasy from God, is presented in the metaphor of an antelope (some translate `wild bull' or `oryx'). Many have been impressed with the elegance and poetic excellence of these lines. The antelope, or gazelle, is among the swiftest and most graceful of animals; and the spectacle of one entangled in a net is tragic and pitiful indeed. Such was the status of the Old Israel as described here.

It would appear that some have misunderstood the meaning of the "two things are befallen thee" in Isaiah 51:19. Douglas, for example, has this! "These two things are befallen her, which branch out into four, namely, desolation, destruction, famine, and sword."[20] The text indeed may seem to say this; but we believe Lowth's explanation is better. He declared the meaning to be: "Desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword, taking the terms alternately, of which there are other examples in the Bible."[21]