Discovery Box

Isaiah 49:16-23

49:16 Look, I have inscribed your name ¹  on my palms;

your walls are constantly before me.

49:17 Your children hurry back,

while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

49:18 Look all around you! ² 

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. ³ 

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, ⁴ 

make room for us so we can live here.’ ⁵ 

49:21 Then you will think to yourself, ⁶ 

‘Who bore these children for me?

I was bereaved and barren,

dismissed and divorced. ⁷ 

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 ⁸  guardians;

their princesses will nurse your children. ⁹ 

With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you

and they will lick the dirt on ¹⁰  your feet.

Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;

those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.