Discovery BoxIsaiah 49:17-21 
Context49:17 Your children hurry back,
while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.
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. 2
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, 3
make room for us so we can live here.’ 4
49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 5
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 6
Who raised these children?
Look, I was left all alone;
where did these children come from?’”
1 tn Heb “Lift up around your eyes and see.”
2 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.
3 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
4 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
5 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
6 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
