Isaiah 49:8–21

⁸Thus saith Jehovah: In a time of acceptance have I answered thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the land, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; ⁹saying to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pasture shall be on all bare hills. ¹⁰They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them will lead them, and by the springs of water will he guide them. ¹¹And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be raised up. ¹²Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

¹³Shout, ye heavens; and be joyful, thou earth; and break forth into singing, ye mountains: for Jehovah hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted ones. ¹⁴But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. ¹⁵Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even these forget, but I will not forget thee. ¹⁶Lo, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. ¹⁷Thy sons shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that laid thee waste shall go forth from thee.

¹⁸Lift up thine eyes round about and behold: they all gather themselves together, they come to thee. As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt indeed clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on as a bride doth. ¹⁹For in thy waste and thy desolate places, and thy destroyed land, thou shalt even now be too straitened by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. ²⁰The 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. ²¹And thou shalt say in thy heart, Who hath borne me these, seeing I had lost my children and was desolate, an exile, and driven about? and who hath brought up these? behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?