Isaiah 49:14-21
English Standard Version
14 But Zion said, (A)“The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 (B)“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16 Behold, (C)I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
17 Your builders make haste;[a]
(D)your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
18 (E)Lift up your eyes around and see;
they all gather, they come to you.
(F)As I live, declares the Lord,
(G)you shall put them all on as an ornament;
you shall bind them on as a bride does.
19 “Surely your waste and your desolate places
and your devastated land—
(H)surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 (I)The children of your bereavement
will yet say in your ears:
(J)‘The place is too narrow for me;
make room for me to dwell in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart:
‘Who has borne me these?
(K)I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away,
but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
from where have these come?’”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 49:17 Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Your children make haste
Isaiah 49:14-21
New Living Translation
14 Yet Jerusalem[a] says, “The Lord has deserted us;
the Lord has forgotten us.”
15 “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child?
Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?
But even if that were possible,
I would not forget you!
16 See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.
Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.
17 Soon your descendants will come back,
and all who are trying to destroy you will go away.
18 Look around you and see,
for all your children will come back to you.
As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“they will be like jewels or bridal ornaments for you to display.
19 “Even the most desolate parts of your abandoned land
will soon be crowded with your people.
Your enemies who enslaved you
will be far away.
20 The generations born in exile will return and say,
‘We need more room! It’s crowded here!’
21 Then you will think to yourself,
‘Who has given me all these descendants?
For most of my children were killed,
and the rest were carried away into exile.
I was left here all alone.
Where did all these people come from?
Who bore these children?
Who raised them for me?’”
Footnotes
- 49:14 Hebrew Zion.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.