Before they even call out, ¹  I will respond; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Even when you are old, I will take care of you, ¹  even when you have gray hair, I will carry you. I made you and I will support you; I will carry you and rescue you. ² 

Since you are precious and special in my sight, ¹  and I love you, I will hand over people in place of you, nations in place of your life.

I decreed and delivered and proclaimed, and there was no other god among you. You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.

This is what the Lord, Israel’s king, says, their protector, ¹  the Lord who commands armies: “I am the first and I am the last, there is no God but me.

But I thought, ¹  “I have worked in vain; I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.” ²  But the Lord will vindicate me; my God will reward me. ³ 

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?’”

“As for me, this is my promise to ¹  them,” says the Lord. “My spirit, who is upon you, and my words, which I have placed in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and descendants from this time forward,” ²  says the Lord.