¹⁴ But Zion said, “The Lord has abandoned me,
And the Lord has forgotten me.”
¹⁵ “Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but ^(A)I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, I have ^(B)inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your ^(C)walls are continually before Me.
¹⁷ Your ^[a]builders hurry;
Your ^(D)destroyers and devastators
Will leave you.
^18 (E)Raise your eyes and look around;
^(F)All of them gather together, ^(G)they come to you.
^(H)As I live,” declares the Lord,
“You will certainly ^(I)put them all on as ^[b]jewelry and bind them on as a bride.
¹⁹ For ^(J)your ruins and deserted places and your destroyed land—
Now you will certainly be ^(K)too cramped for the inhabitants,
And those who ^(L)swallowed you will be far away.
²⁰ The ^(M)children ^[c]you lost will yet say in your ears,
‘The place is too cramped for me;
Make room for me that I may live here.’
²¹ Then you will ^(N)say in your heart,
‘Who has fathered these for me,
Since I have been bereaved of my children
And ^(O)cannot conceive, and I am an ^(P)exile, and a wanderer?
And who has raised these?
Behold, I was ^(Q)left alone;
^[d](R)Where are these from?’”