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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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Compassion for Zion

14 But Zion says, “The Lord has abandoned me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    fail to pity the child of her womb?
        Even these may forget,
        but I won’t forget you.
16 Look, on my palms I’ve inscribed you;
    your walls are before me continually.
17 Your builders[a] come quickly;
    those who destroy and demolish you will depart from you.
18 Look up all around and see:
    they are all gathered;
    they come to you.
As surely as I live, says the Lord,
    you will put them all on like ornaments,
    bind them on like a bride.

19 As for your ruins and desolate places
    and destroyed land—
    you will soon be crowded with settlers,
    and those who swallowed you will be far away.
20 You will again hear the children who were born bereaved say,
    “The place is too crowded for me;
    make room for me to settle.”
21 And you will think to yourself,
    Who bore me these?
    I was bereaved and desolate, exiled and sent off.
So who raised these?
    I was left behind, I was alone;
    where were these?

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 49:17 Or children