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14 But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,
    and the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yes, these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you!
16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
    Your walls are continually before me.
17 Your children hurry.
    Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.
18 Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
    all these gather themselves together, and come to you.
As I live,” says Yahweh, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament,
    and dress yourself with them, like a bride.
19 “For, as for your waste and your desolate places,
    and your land that has been destroyed,
surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 The children of your bereavement will say in your ears,
    ‘This place is too small for me.
    Give me a place to live in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children
    and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth?
Who has brought these up?
    Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’”

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14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”(A)
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child
    or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these might forget,
    yet I will not forget you.(B)
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.(C)
17 Your builders outdo your destroyers,[a]
    and those who laid you waste go away from you.(D)
18 Lift up your eyes all around and see;
    they all gather; they come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
    you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
    and like a bride you shall bind them on.(E)

19 For your wastelands, your desolate places,
    and your devastated land—
now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.(F)
20 The children born in the time of your bereavement
    will yet say in your hearing:
“The place is too crowded for me;
    make room for me to settle.”(G)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
    “Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away—
    so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
    where, then, have these come from?”(H)

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Footnotes

  1. 49.17 Or Your children come swiftly; your destroyers