“In the time of my favor^(A) I will answer you,
    and in the day of salvation I will help you;^(B)
I will keep^(C) you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people,^(D)
to restore the land^(E)
    and to reassign its desolate inheritances,^(F)
9 to say to the captives,^(G) ‘Come out,’
    and to those in darkness,^(H) ‘Be free!’

“They will feed beside the roads
    and find pasture on every barren hill.^(I)

¹³ Shout for joy,^(A) you heavens;
    rejoice, you earth;^(B)
    burst into song, you mountains!^(C)
For the Lord comforts^(D) his people
    and will have compassion^(E) on his afflicted ones.^(F)

¹⁴ But Zion^(G) said, “The Lord has forsaken^(H) me,
    the Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵ “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
    and have no compassion on the child^(I) she has borne?
Though she may forget,
    I will not forget you!^(J)
16 See, I have engraved^(K) you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls^(L) are ever before me.
¹⁷ Your children hasten back,
    and those who laid you waste^(M) depart from you.
¹⁸ Lift up your eyes and look around;
    all your children gather^(N) and come to you.
As surely as I live,^(O)” declares the Lord,
    “you will wear^(P) them all as ornaments;
    you will put them on, like a bride.

²³ Kings^(A) will be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.^(B)
They will bow down^(C) before you with their faces to the ground;
    they will lick the dust^(D) at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;^(E)
    those who hope^(F) in me will not be disappointed.^(G)”

²⁶ I will make your oppressors^(A) eat^(B) their own flesh;
    they will be drunk on their own blood,^(C) as with wine.
Then all mankind will know^(D)
    that I, the Lord, am your Savior,^(E)
    your Redeemer,^(F) the Mighty One of Jacob.^(G)”