Isaiah 49:14-18

The Lord Remembers Zion

49:14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,

the sovereign master ¹  has forgotten me.’

49:15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ² 

Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ³ 

Even if mothers ⁴  were to forget,

I could never forget you! ⁵ 

49:16 Look, I have inscribed your name ⁶  on my palms;

your walls are constantly before me.

49:17 Your children hurry back,

while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

49:18 Look all around you! ⁷ 

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.

Isaiah 54:1-3

Zion Will Be Secure

54:1 “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth!

Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor!

For the children of the desolate one are more numerous

than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

54:2 Make your tent larger,

stretch your tent curtains farther out! ⁸ 

Spare no effort,

lengthen your ropes,

and pound your stakes deep. ⁹ 

54:3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;

your children will conquer ¹⁰  nations

and will resettle desolate cities.

Galatians 4:26

4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, ¹¹  and she is our mother.

[49:14]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[49:15]  ² tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”

[49:15]  ³ tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”

[49:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).

[49:15]  ⁵ 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.

[49:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “you.” Here the pronoun is put by metonymy for the person’s name.

[49:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”

[54:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “the curtains of our dwelling places let them stretch out.”

[54:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “your stakes strengthen.”

[54:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or “take possession of”; NAB “shall dispossess.”

[4:26]  ¹¹ sn The meaning of the statement the Jerusalem above is free is that the other woman represents the second covenant (cf. v. 24); she corresponds to the Jerusalem above that is free. Paul’s argument is very condensed at this point.