Isaiah 49:17-21

Context

49:17 Your children hurry back,

while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

49:18 Look all around you!¹

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.

49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;

it is desolate and devastated.²

But now you will be too small to hold your residents,

and those who devoured you will be far away.

49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement

will say within your hearing,

‘This place is too cramped for us,³

make room for us so we can live here.’⁴

49:21 Then you will think to yourself,⁵

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced.⁶

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

[49:18] ¹tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”

[49:19] ²tn 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.

[49:20] ³tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.

[49:20] ⁴tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”

[49:21] ⁵tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21] ⁶tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”