Discovery BoxIsaiah 49:19-23 
Context49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;
it is desolate and devastated. 1
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, 2
make room for us so we can live here.’ 3
49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 4
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 5
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 6 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 7
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 8 your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
1 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.
2 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
3 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
4 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
5 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
6 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
7 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
8 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
