⁸ Who has ever heard of such things?
    Who has ever seen^(A) things like this?
Can a country be born in a day^(B)
    or a nation be brought forth in a moment?
Yet no sooner is Zion in labor
    than she gives birth to her children.^(C)

⁴ Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,^(A)
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.^(B)

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”^[a]—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—^(A)

“Those who were not told about him will see,
    and those who have not heard will understand.”^[a](I)

²⁰ The children born during your bereavement
    will yet say in your hearing,
‘This place is too small for us;
    give us more space to live in.’^(A)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
    ‘Who bore me these?^(B)
I was bereaved^(C) and barren;
    I was exiled and rejected.^(D)
    Who brought these^(E) up?
I was left^(F) all alone,^(G)
    but these—where have they come from?’”

“See, I will beckon to the nations,
    I will lift up my banner^(I) to the peoples;
they will bring^(J) your sons in their arms
    and carry your daughters on their hips.^(K)