Isaiah 49:8–21

The Day of Salvation

⁸This is what the Lord says:

“At the right time I will hear your prayers.

On the day of salvation I will help you.

I will protect you,

and you will be the sign of my agreement with the people.

You will bring back the people to the land

and give the land that is now ruined back to its owners.

⁹You will tell the prisoners, ‘Come out of your prison.’

You will tell those in darkness, ‘Come into the light.’

The people will eat beside the roads,

and they will find food even on bare hills.

¹⁰They will not be hungry or thirsty.

Neither the hot sun nor the desert wind will hurt them.

The God who comforts them will lead them

and guide them by springs of water.

¹¹I will make my mountains into roads,

and the roads will be raised up.

¹²Look, people are coming to me from far away,

from the north and from the west,

from Aswan in southern Egypt.”

¹³Heavens and earth, be happy.

Mountains, shout with joy,

because the Lord comforts his people

and will have pity on those who suffer.

Jerusalem and Her Children

¹⁴But Jerusalem said, “The Lord has left me;

the Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵The Lord answers, “Can a woman forget the baby she nurses?

Can she feel no kindness for the child to which she gave birth?

Even if she could forget her children,

I will not forget you.

¹⁶See, I have written your name on my hand.

Jerusalem, I always think about your walls.

¹⁷Your children will soon return to you,

and the people who defeated you and destroyed you will leave.

¹⁸Look up and look around you.

All your children are gathering to return to you.”

The Lord says, “As surely as I live,

your children will be like jewels

that a bride wears proudly.

¹⁹“You were destroyed and defeated,

and your land was made useless.

But now you will have more people than the land can hold,

and those people who destroyed you will be far away.

²⁰Children were born to you while you were sad,

but they will say to you,

‘This place is too small for us.

Give us a bigger place to live.’

²¹Then you will say to yourself,

‘Who gave me all these children?

I was sad and lonely,

defeated and separated from my people.

So who reared these children?

I was left all alone.

Where did all these children come from?’ ”