Isaiah 49:15-26 ▼

15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, but I will not forget you.

16 Behold, I have inscribed you upon the palms of my hands; your fortified walls are continually before me.

17 Your sons who caused your destruction and those who laid you waste shall make haste to go forth from you.

18 Lift up your eyes round about and behold; they all gather themselves together and come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and you shall be adorned like a bride.

19 For your waste and your desolate places and the land of your destruction shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall flee away.

20 The children which you shall have during the time of your bereavement shall say again in your ears, The place is too narrow for us; make room for us to dwell.

21 Then you shall say in your heart, Who has borne me these? For, behold, I have been bereaved and barren, a captive, and wandering to and fro. And who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; and these children, where have they been?

22 Thus says the LORD God: Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the nations; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.

23 And kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; they shall bow down to you with their faces to the ground and shall lick the dust off your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD; for they who wait for me shall not be ashamed.

24 Can the prey be taken away from the mighty, or a giant's captives be delivered?

25 For thus says the LORD: Even the prey of the mighty shall be taken away, and the captives of the mighty shall be delivered; and I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.

26 And I will cause your oppressors to eat their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with new wine; and all men shall know that I the LORD am your Saviour and your Helper, the Mighty One of Jacob.