Isaiah 49:17–23

¹⁷Your builders ^uhurry;

those who destroy and devastate you will leave you.

¹⁸Look up, and look around.

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

As I live”—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

“you will wear all your children ^was 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, ^x

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.’ ^y

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?’ ” ^z

²²This is what the Lord God says:

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

and raise My banner to the peoples. ^a

They will bring your sons in their arms,

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

²³Kings will be your foster fathers,

and their queens ^cyour nursing mothers. ^d

They will bow down to you

with their faces to the ground,

and lick the dust at your feet. ^e

Then you will know that I am Yahweh; ^f

those who put their hope in Me

will not be put to shame. ^g