Isaiah 49:14-21
New English Translation
The Lord Remembers Zion
14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,
the Lord[a] has forgotten me.’
15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast?[b]
Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne?[c]
Even if mothers[d] were to forget,
I could never forget you![e]
16 Look, I have inscribed your name[f] on my palms;
your walls are constantly before me.
17 Your children hurry back,
while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.
18 Look all around you![g]
All of them gather to you.
As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“you will certainly wear all of them like jewelry;
you will put them on as if you were a bride.
19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;
it is desolate and devastated.[h]
But now you will be too small to hold your residents,
and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement
will say within your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for us,[i]
make room for us so we can live here.’[j]
21 Then you will think to yourself,[k]
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced.[l]
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
Footnotes
- Isaiah 49:14 tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (ʾadonay).
- Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”
- Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”
- Isaiah 49:15 tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).
- Isaiah 49:15 sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.
- Isaiah 49:16 tn Heb “you.” Here the pronoun is put by metonymy for the person’s name.
- Isaiah 49:18 tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”
- Isaiah 49:19 tn Heb “Indeed your ruins and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction.” This statement is abruptly terminated in the Hebrew text and left incomplete.
- Isaiah 49:20 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
- Isaiah 49:20 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
- Isaiah 49:21 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
- Isaiah 49:21 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
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
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
