Discovery BoxIsaiah 49:20-25 
Context49:20 Yet the children born during your time of bereavement
will say within your hearing,
‘This place is too cramped for us, 1
make room for us so we can live here.’ 2
49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 3
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 4
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 5 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 6
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 7 your feet.
Then you will recognize that I am the Lord;
those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.
49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,
or captives be rescued from a conqueror? 8
49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,
“captives will be taken from a warrior;
spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.
I will oppose your adversary
and I will rescue your children.
1 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
2 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
3 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
4 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
5 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
6 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
7 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
8 tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsaa reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).
