Isaiah 49:19-21

49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;

it is desolate and devastated. ¹ 

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, ² 

make room for us so we can live here.’ ³ 

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ⁴ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ⁵ 

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”

[49:19]  ¹ tn 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]  ² tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.

[49:20]  ³ tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”

[49:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

[49:21]  ⁵ tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”