Isaiah 49:17–23

¹⁷Your builders^F hurry;

those who destroy and devastate you will leave you.

¹⁸Look up, and look around.

They all gather together; they come to you.^a

As I live”—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

“you will wear all your children^A as jewelry,

and put them on as a bride does.

¹⁹For your waste and desolate places

and your land marked by ruins

will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants,^b

and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

²⁰Yet 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.’^c

²¹Then you will say within yourself,

‘Who fathered these for me?

I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive,

exiled and wandering—

but who brought them up?

See, I was left by myself—

but these, where did they come from?’ ”^B

²²This is what the Lord God says:

Look, I will lift up my hand to the nations,

and raise my banner to the peoples.^d

They will bring your sons in their arms,

and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.^e

²³Kings will be your guardians

and their queens^C your nursing mothers.^f

They will bow down to you

with their faces to the ground

and lick the dust at your feet.^g

Then you will know that I am the Lord;^h

those who put their hope in me

will not be put to shame.ⁱ