Isaiah 49:20–26

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

²⁴Can the prey be taken from a mighty man,

or the captives of a tyrant^D be delivered?

²⁵For this is what the Lord says:

“Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken,

and the prey of a tyrant will be delivered;

I will contend with the one who contends with you,

and I will save your children.

²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,^j

and they will be drunk with their own blood

as with sweet wine.

Then all humanity will know

that I, the Lord, am your Savior,^k

and your Redeemer,^l the Mighty One of Jacob.”^m