49:23 Kings will be your children’s 1 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 2
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 3 your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;
they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. 4
Then all humankind 5 will recognize that
I am the Lord, your deliverer,
your protector, 6 the powerful ruler of Jacob.” 7
59:21 “As for me, this is my promise to 8 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,” 9 says the Lord.
62:4 You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,”
and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.”
Indeed, 10 you will be called “My Delight is in Her,” 11
and your land “Married.” 12
For the Lord will take delight in you,
and your land will be married to him. 13
1 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
2 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
3 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
4 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.
5 tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).
6 tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
7 tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.
8 tn Or “my covenant with” (so many English versions); NCV “my agreement with.”
sn The Lord promises the repentant (note “to them”) that they and their offspring will possess his spirit and function as his spokesmen. In this regard they follow in the footsteps of the Lord’s special servant. See 42:1; 49:2; 51:16.
9 tn Heb “from now and on into the future.”
10 tn Or “for”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “but.”
11 tn Hebrew חֶפְצִי־בָהּ (kheftsi-vah), traditionally transliterated “Hephzibah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).
12 tn Hebrew בְּעוּלָה (bÿ’ulah), traditionally transliterated “Beulah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).
13 tn That is, the land will be restored to the Lord’s favor and once again enjoy his blessing and protection. To indicate the land’s relationship to the Lord, the words “to him” have been supplied at the end of the clause.