Discovery BoxIsaiah 49:6 
Context49:6 he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant,
to reestablish the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the remnant 1 of Israel? 2
I will make you a light to the nations, 3
so you can bring 4 my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”
Isaiah 49:19-23
Context49:19 Yes, your land lies in ruins;
it is desolate and devastated. 5
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, 6
make room for us so we can live here.’ 7
49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 8
‘Who bore these children for me?
I was bereaved and barren,
dismissed and divorced. 9
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 10 guardians;
their princesses will nurse your children. 11
With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you
and they will lick the dirt on 12 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 “the protected [or “preserved”] ones.”
2 sn The question is purely rhetorical; it does not imply that the servant was dissatisfied with his commission or that he minimized the restoration of Israel.
4 tn Heb “be” (so KJV, ASV); CEV “you must take.”
5 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.
6 tn Heb “me.” The singular is collective.
7 tn Heb “draw near to me so I can dwell.”
8 tn Heb “and you will say in your heart.”
9 tn Or “exiled and thrust away”; NIV “exiled and rejected.”
10 tn Heb “your,” but Zion here stands by metonymy for her children (see v. 22b).
11 tn Heb “you.” See the preceding note.
12 tn Or “at your feet” (NAB, NIV); NLT “from your feet.”
