Isaiah 49:17-21

49:17 Your children hurry back,

while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

49:18 Look all around you!

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.

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,

make room for us so we can live here.’

49:21 Then you will think to yourself,

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced.

Who raised these children?

Look, I was left all alone;

where did these children come from?’”


tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”

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.

tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.

tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”

tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”

tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”