Discovery BoxIsaiah 49:21-26
Context49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 1
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 2
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
49:22 This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“Look I will raise my hand to the nations;
I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.
They will bring your sons in their arms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
49:23 Kings will be your children’s 3 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 4
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 5 your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,
or captives be rescued from a conqueror? 6
49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,
“captives will be taken from a warrior;
spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.
I will oppose your adversary
and I will rescue your children.
49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. 7
Then all humankind 8 will recognize that
I am the Lord, your deliverer,
[49:21] 1 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
[49:21] 2 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
[49:23] 3 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
[49:23] 4 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
[49:23] 5 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
[49:24] 6 tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).
[49:26] 7 sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.
[49:26] 8 tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).
