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The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
    while the hungry no longer have to toil.
The barren wife bears seven sons,
    while the mother of many languishes.(A)

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Those who were full hire themselves out for food,
    but those who were hungry(A) are hungry no more.
She who was barren(B) has borne seven children,
    but she who has had many sons pines away.

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Chapter 54

The New Zion

Raise a glad cry, you barren one[a] who never bore a child,
    break forth in jubilant song, you who have never been in labor,
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
    than the children of her who has a husband,
    says the Lord.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 54:1 Jerusalem, pictured as a wife who had been barren and deserted, now suddenly finds herself with innumerable children (the returning exiles); cf. Gal 4:27 for an application to a new context.

The Future Glory of Zion

54 “Sing, barren woman,(A)
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,(B)
    you who were never in labor;(C)
because more are the children(D) of the desolate(E) woman
    than of her who has a husband,(F)
says the Lord.

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