Isaiah 49:20
◄  Isaiah 49:20  ►
New International Version (©2011)
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.'

New Living Translation (©2007)
The generations born in exile will return and say, 'We need more room! It's crowded here!'

English Standard Version (©2001)
The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ‘The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.’

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, 'The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.'

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Yet as you listen, the children that you have been deprived of will say, This place is too small for me; make room for me so that I may settle.'

International Standard Version (©2012)
"The children who are grieving at present will yet say in your hearing, 'This place is too crowded for me; make room for me, so I may have a place to live.'

NET Bible (©2006)
Yet the children born during your time of bereavement will say within your hearing, 'This place is too cramped for us, make room for us so we can live here.'

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
The children taken from you will say to you, "This place is too crowded for me. Make room for me to live here."

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too narrow for me: give a place to me that I may dwell.

American King James Version
The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

American Standard Version
The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The children of thy barrenness shall still say in thy ears: The place is too strait for me, make me room to dwell in.

Darby Bible Translation
The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too narrow for me: make room for me, that I may dwell.

English Revised Version
The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

Webster's Bible Translation
The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thy ears, The place is too narrow for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

World English Bible
The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, The place is too small for me; give place to me that I may dwell.

Young's Literal Translation
Again do the sons of thy bereavement say in thine ears: 'The place is too strait for me, Come nigh to me -- and I dwell.'

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

49:18-23 Zion is addressed as an afflicted widow, bereaved of her children. Numbers flock to her, and she is assured that they come to be a comfort to her. There are times when the church is desolate and few in number; yet its desolations shall not last for ever, and God will repair them. God can raise up friends for returning Israelites, even among Gentiles. They shall bring their children, and make them thy children. Let all deal tenderly and carefully with young converts and beginners in religion. Princes shall protect the church. It shall appear that God is the sovereign Lord of all. And those who in the exercise of faith, hope, and patience, wait on God for the fulfilment of his promises, shall never be confounded.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other; literally, the children of thy bereavement; i.e. the Gentiles who shall replace those many faithless Israelites who refused to return when Cyrus issued his edict, and became lost to the Church of God. The place is too strait for me (see the comment on ver. 19).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other,.... Which "other lost" are not the Jews, the broken branches, rejected and cut off for unbelief; and the "children after" them not the Gentiles converted, which took their place; but "the other" are such who have been destroyed by the Heathen persecutions, and especially by the antichristian cruelties; and the "children after", the great numbers of converts upon the fall of antichrist. The words may be rendered, "the children of thine orbity" (o), or "childless state"; such as were born unto her in an uncommon, extraordinary, and unexpected way, when the church seemed to be in a widowhood estate, or like a woman that is past bearing children:

shall say again in thine ears; or, "shall yet say" (p); that is, hereafter, in time to come: for this is a prophecy of what should be said in the church's hearing, and such as had never been said before; and therefore improperly rendered "again"; for there never has been as yet such a time as this, or such a large number of converts, as to say,

the place is too strait for me to dwell in; there is not room enough for us, as in 2 Kings 6:1,

give place to me that I may dwell; one and another of the children or converts should say, make room for me, that I may have a name and a place among you, and dwell with you, and abide in the house of the Lord, and partake of the privileges and ordinances of it: but the word used signifies drawing nigh, and not giving way or removing; and should rather be rendered, "draw nigh to me that I may dwell"; or "and I shall dwell" (q), or "sit"; come close to one another, and we shall all sit and dwell comfortably together; just as when a house is well filled with agreeable company, and there is an unwillingness to part with or lose any, they are desired to sit close together, that there may be room for all: and this is, and will be, the case with the church and her members; they will be desirous to sit regularly, and close together, in Gospel order, that everyone may be comfortable, and partake of the benefit of communion, and none be obliged to depart: and to this sense Gussetius (r) interprets the phrase.

(o) "filii orbitatis tuae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vitringa; "orbitatum tuarum", Pagninus, Montanus; "tui orbati", Munster. (The word "orbity" means "childless" or "without parents", Webster's 1828 Dictionary, Editor) (p) "adhuc dicent", Gataker, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Vitringa. q) "accede mihi & habitabo", Montanus; "contrahe te mea causa ut sedeam", Cocceius. (r) Ebr. Comment. p. 496.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. children … after … other—rather, "the children of thy widowhood," that is, the children of whom thou hast been bereft during their dispersion in other lands (see on [834]Isa 47:8) [Maurer].

again—rather, "yet."

give place—rather, "stand close to me," namely, in order that we may be the more able to dwell in in the narrow place [Horsley]. Compare as to Israel's spiritual children, and the extension of the gospel sphere, Ro 15:19, 24; 2Co 10:14-16. But Isa 49:22 (compare Isa 66:20) shows that her literal children are primarily meant. Gesenius translates, "Make room."

Isaiah 49:20 Parallel Commentaries

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The Restoration of Israel
…19For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away. 20The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. 21Then shall you say in your heart, Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? …

Isaiah 29:23 When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Isaiah 54:1 "Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the LORD.
Isaiah 54:2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
Isaiah 60:4 "Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the hip.
Zechariah 2:4 and said to him: "Run, tell that young man, 'Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it.
Zechariah 10:10 I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them.