15  n“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet I will not forget you.

16  Behold, oI have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

17  Your builders make haste;4

pyour destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

18  qLift up your eyes around and see;

they all gather, they come to you.

rAs I live, declares the Lord,

syou shall put them all on as an ornament;

you shall bind them on as a bride does.

19  “Surely your waste and your desolate places

and your devastated land—

tsurely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,

and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20  uThe children of your bereavement

will yet say in your ears:

t‘The place is too narrow for me;

make room for me to dwell in.’

21  Then you will say in your heart:

‘Who has borne me these?

uI was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away,

but who has brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone;

from where have these come?’ ”