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18 Look about and see,
    they are all gathering and coming to you.
As I live—oracle of the Lord
    you shall don them as jewels,
    bedeck yourself like a bride.

19 Though you were waste and desolate,
    a land of ruins,
Now you shall be too narrow for your inhabitants,
    while those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 The children of whom you were bereft
    shall yet say in your hearing,
“This place is too narrow for me,
    make room for me to live in.”
21 You shall ask yourself:
    “Who has borne me these,
    when I was bereft and barren?
Exiled and repudiated,
    who has reared them?
I was left all alone;
    where then do these come from?”(A)

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18 Lift up your eyes and look around;
    all your children gather(A) and come to you.
As surely as I live,(B)” declares the Lord,
    “you will wear(C) them all as ornaments;
    you will put them on, like a bride.

19 “Though you were ruined and made desolate(D)
    and your land laid waste,(E)
now you will be too small for your people,(F)
    and those who devoured(G) you will be far away.
20 The children born during your bereavement
    will yet say in your hearing,
‘This place is too small for us;
    give us more space to live in.’(H)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
    ‘Who bore me these?(I)
I was bereaved(J) and barren;
    I was exiled and rejected.(K)
    Who brought these(L) up?
I was left(M) all alone,(N)
    but these—where have they come from?’”

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Chapter 54

The New Zion

Raise a glad cry, you barren one[a] who never bore a child,
    break forth in jubilant song, you who have never been in labor,
For more numerous are the children of the deserted wife
    than the children of her who has a husband,
    says the Lord.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 54:1 Jerusalem, pictured as a wife who had been barren and deserted, now suddenly finds herself with innumerable children (the returning exiles); cf. Gal 4:27 for an application to a new context.

The Future Glory of Zion

54 “Sing, barren woman,(A)
    you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,(B)
    you who were never in labor;(C)
because more are the children(D) of the desolate(E) woman
    than of her who has a husband,(F)
says the Lord.

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