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.’(A)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
    ‘Who bore me these?(B)
I was bereaved(C) and barren;
    I was exiled and rejected.(D)
    Who brought these(E) up?
I was left(F) all alone,(G)
    but these—where have they come from?’”

22 This is what the Sovereign Lord(H) says:

“See, I will beckon to the nations,
    I will lift up my banner(I) to the peoples;
they will bring(J) your sons in their arms
    and carry your daughters on their hips.(K)
23 Kings(L) will be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.(M)
They will bow down(N) before you with their faces to the ground;
    they will lick the dust(O) at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;(P)
    those who hope(Q) in me will not be disappointed.(R)

24 Can plunder be taken from warriors,(S)
    or captives be rescued from the fierce[a]?

25 But this is what the Lord says:

“Yes, captives(T) will be taken from warriors,(U)
    and plunder retrieved from the fierce;(V)
I will contend with those who contend with you,(W)
    and your children I will save.(X)
26 I will make your oppressors(Y) eat(Z) their own flesh;
    they will be drunk on their own blood,(AA) as with wine.
Then all mankind will know(AB)
    that I, the Lord, am your Savior,(AC)
    your Redeemer,(AD) the Mighty One of Jacob.(AE)

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 49:24 Dead Sea Scrolls, Vulgate and Syriac (see also Septuagint and verse 25); Masoretic Text righteous

20 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

21 Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

22 Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

25 But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

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10 Yet it was the Lord’s will(A) to crush(B) him and cause him to suffer,(C)
    and though the Lord makes[a] his life an offering for sin,(D)
he will see his offspring(E) and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper(F) in his hand.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 53:10 Hebrew though you make

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

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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.
“Enlarge the place of your tent,(G)
    stretch your tent curtains wide,
    do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
    strengthen your stakes.(H)
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
    your descendants(I) will dispossess nations(J)
    and settle in their desolate(K) cities.

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54 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

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