Isaiah 49
New King James Version
The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles
49 “Listen, (A)O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
(B)The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the [a]matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
2 And He has made (C)My mouth like a sharp sword;
(D)In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me (E)a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”
3 “And He said to me,
(F)‘You are My servant, O Israel,
(G)In whom I will be glorified.’
4 (H)Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my [b]just reward is with the Lord,
And my [c]work with my God.’ ”
5 “And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel (I)is [d]gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
6 Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a (J)light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
7 Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, [e]their Holy One,
(K)To Him [f]whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
(L)“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”
8 Thus says the Lord:
“In an (M)acceptable[g] time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will [h]preserve You (N)and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate [i]heritages;
9 That You may say (O)to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’
“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
10 They shall neither (P)hunger nor thirst,
(Q)Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them (R)will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
11 (S)I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
12 Surely (T)these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”
13 (U)Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.
God Will Remember Zion
14 (V)But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can(W) a woman forget her nursing child,
[j]And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
(X)Yet I will not forget you.
16 See, (Y)I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
17 Your [k]sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
18 (Z)Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all (AA)as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.
19 “For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
(AB)Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 (AC)The children you will have,
(AD)After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
21 Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’ ”
22 (AE)Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My [l]standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their [m]arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
23 (AF)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And (AG)lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
(AH)For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”
25 But thus says the Lord:
“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.
26 I will (AJ)feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own (AK)blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh (AL)shall know
That I, the Lord, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 49:1 Lit. inward parts
- Isaiah 49:4 justice
- Isaiah 49:4 recompense
- Isaiah 49:5 Qr., DSS, LXX gathered to Him; Kt. not gathered
- Isaiah 49:7 Lit. his or its
- Isaiah 49:7 Lit. who is despised of soul
- Isaiah 49:8 favorable
- Isaiah 49:8 keep
- Isaiah 49:8 inheritances
- Isaiah 49:15 Lit. From having compassion
- Isaiah 49:17 DSS, LXX, Tg., Vg. builders
- Isaiah 49:22 banner
- Isaiah 49:22 Lit. bosom
- Isaiah 49:24 So with MT, Tg.; DSS, Syr., Vg. of the mighty; LXX unjustly
Isaiah 49
Lexham English Bible
Yahweh’s Servant Brings Salvation
49 Listen to me, coastlands,
and listen attentively, peoples from far away!
Yahweh called me from the womb;
from the body[a] of my mother he made my name known.
2 And he made[b] my mouth like a sharp sword;
he hid me in the shadow of his hand,
and he made[c] me like an sharpened arrow;
he hid me in his quiver.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will show my glory.”
4 But[d] I myself said, “I have labored in[e] vain;
I have used up my strength for nothing and vanity!
Nevertheless, my justice is with Yahweh,
and my reward is with my God.”
5 And now Yahweh says,
who formed me from the womb as a servant for him,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might not[f] be gathered,
for[g] I am honored in the eyes of Yahweh,
and my God has become my strength.
6 And he says, “It is trivial for you to be[h] a servant for me,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel.
I will give you as a light to the nations,
to be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7 Thus says Yahweh, the redeemer of Israel, his holy one,
to the one who despises[i] life,
to the one who abhors the nation,
to the slave of rulers:
“Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall bow down,
for the sake of Yahweh, who is faithful,
the holy one of Israel, and he has chosen you.”
Yahweh Restores the Afflicted
8 Thus says Yahweh:
“I have answered you in a time of favor,
and helped you on a day of salvation,
and watched over you,
and given you as a covenant of the people,
to raise up the land,
to give the desolate hereditary property as an inheritance,
9 saying to the prisoners,[j] “Come out!”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves!”
they shall feed along[k] the ways,
and their pasturage shall be on all the barren heights.
10 They shall not be hungry or thirsty,
and heat and sun shall not strike them,
for he who takes pity on them will lead them,
and he will guide them to springs of water.
11 And I will make[l] all my mountains like a road,
and my highways shall lead up.[m]
12 Look! These shall come from afar,
And look! These from the north and from the west
and these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing for joy, heavens, and rejoice, earth!
Mountains must break forth in rejoicing!
For Yahweh has comforted his people,
and he will take pity on his afflicted ones.
Yahweh Remembers Zion
14 But[n] Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,
and the Lord has forgotten me!”
15 Can a woman forget her suckling,
refrain from having compassion on the child of her womb?
Indeed, these may forget,
but[o] I, I will not forget you!
16 Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children hasten;
your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart[p] from you.
18 Lift your eyes up all around and see;
all of them gather; they come to you.
As surely as I live,[q]
declares[r] Yahweh,
surely you shall put on all of them like an ornament,
and you shall bind them on like a bride.
19 Surely your sites of ruins and desolate places and land of ruins,[s]
surely now you will be too cramped for your[t] inhabitants,[u]
and those who engulfed you will be far away.
20 Yet the children born when you were bereaved[v] will say in your hearing,[w]
“The place is too cramped for me;
make room[x] for me so that I can dwell.”
21 Then[y] you will say in your heart,
“Who has borne me these?”
And, “I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and thrust away;
so[z] who raised these?
Look at me! I was left alone;
where have these come from?”[aa]
22 Thus says the Lord Yahweh:
“Look! I will lift my hand up to the nations,
and I will raise my signal to the peoples,
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.[ab]
23 And kings shall be your guardians,[ac]
and their queens your nurses.
They shall bow down, faces[ad] to the ground, to you,
and they will lick up the dust of your feet.
Then[ae] you will know that I am Yahweh;
those who await me shall not be ashamed.
24 Can war-booty be taken from the mighty?
or can a captive of a righteous[af] person be rescued?
25 But thus says Yahweh:
“Indeed a captive of the mighty shall be taken,
and the war-booty of the tyrant shall be rescued,
for[ag] I myself will dispute with your opponent,
and I myself will save your children.
26 And I will feed your oppressors their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their blood as with wine.
Then[ah] all flesh shall know that I am Yahweh,
your savior and redeemer, the strong one of Jacob.”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 49:1 Literally “intestines”
- Isaiah 49:2 Literally “put”
- Isaiah 49:2 Literally “put”
- Isaiah 49:4 Or “And”
- Isaiah 49:4 Or “for”
- Isaiah 49:5 The reading tradition (Qere) has “to him”
- Isaiah 49:5 Or “and”
- Isaiah 49:6 Literally “from being you”
- Isaiah 49:7 A Dead Sea Scroll reads “is despised with respect to”
- Isaiah 49:9 Literally “captured ones”
- Isaiah 49:9 Literally “on”
- Isaiah 49:11 Literally “put”
- Isaiah 49:11 Or “be high”
- Isaiah 49:14 Or “And”
- Isaiah 49:15 Or “and”
- Isaiah 49:17 Or “move away”
- Isaiah 49:18 Literally “Life I”
- Isaiah 49:18 Literally “declaration of”
- Isaiah 49:19 Hebrew “ruin”
- Isaiah 49:19 Literally “cramped by”
- Isaiah 49:19 Hebrew “inhabitant”
- Isaiah 49:20 Literally “of your bereavement”
- Isaiah 49:20 Literally “ears”
- Isaiah 49:20 Literally “approach”
- Isaiah 49:21 Or “And”
- Isaiah 49:21 Or “and”
- Isaiah 49:21 Literally “these where they”
- Isaiah 49:22 Hebrew “shoulder”
- Isaiah 49:23 Literally “those who nurture”
- Isaiah 49:23 Literally “noses”
- Isaiah 49:23 Or “And”
- Isaiah 49:24 The Dead Sea Scroll has “violent”
- Isaiah 49:25 Or “and”
- Isaiah 49:26 Or “And”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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