Discovery BoxIsaiah 66:7-12 
Context66:7 Before she goes into labor, she gives birth!
Before her contractions begin, she delivers a boy!
66:8 Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Who has ever seen this?
Can a country 1 be brought forth in one day?
Can a nation be born in a single moment?
Yet as soon as Zion goes into labor she gives birth to sons!
66:9 “Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?”
asks the Lord.
“Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?”
asks your God. 2
66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem
and rejoice with her, all you who love her!
Share in her great joy,
all you who have mourned over her!
66:11 For 3 you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; 4
you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts. 5
66:12 For this is what the Lord says:
“Look, I am ready to extend to her prosperity that will flow like a river,
the riches of nations will flow into her like a stream that floods its banks. 6
You will nurse from her breast 7 and be carried at her side;
you will play on her knees.
1 tn Heb “land,” but here אֶרֶץ (’erets) stands metonymically for an organized nation (see the following line).
2 sn The rhetorical questions expect the answer, “Of course not!”
3 tn Or “in order that”; ASV, NRSV “that.”
4 tn Heb “you will suck and be satisfied, from her comforting breast.”
5 tn Heb “you will slurp and refresh yourselves from her heavy breast.”
sn Zion’s residents will benefit from and enjoy her great material prosperity. See v. 12.
6 tn Heb “Look, I am ready to extend to her like a river prosperity [or “peace”], and like an overflowing stream, the riches of nations.”
7 tn The words “from her breast” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 11).
