Isaiah 49:14–21

Yahweh Remembers Zion

¹⁴Butⁿ Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me,

and the Lord has forgotten me!”

¹⁵Can a woman forget her suckling,

refrain from having compassion on the child of her womb?

Indeed, these may forget,

but^o I, I will not forget you!

¹⁶Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are continually before me.

¹⁷Your children hasten;

your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart^p from you.

¹⁸Lift your eyes up all around and see;

all of them gather; they come to you.

As surely as I live,^q

declares^r Yahweh,

surely you shall put on all of them like an ornament,

and you shall bind them on like a bride.

¹⁹Surely your sites of ruins and desolate places and land of ruins,^s

surely now you will be too cramped for your^t inhabitants,^u

and those who engulfed you will be far away.

²⁰Yet the children born when you were bereaved^v will say in your hearing,^w

“The place is too cramped for me;

make room^x for me so that I can dwell.”

²¹Then^y you will say in your heart,

“Who has borne me these?”

And, “I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and thrust away;

so^z who raised these?

Look at me! I was left alone;

where have these come from?”^a