Restoration of Israel

8 This is what the Lord says:

“In the time of my favorw I will answer you,

and in the day of salvation I will help you;x

I will keepy you and will make you

to be a covenant for the people,z

to restore the landa

and to reassign its desolate inheritances,b

9 to say to the captives,c ‘Come out,’

and to those in darkness,d ‘Be free!’

“They will feed beside the roads

and find pasture on every barren hill.e

10 They will neither hunger nor thirst,f

nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.g

He who has compassionh on them will guidei them

and lead them beside springsj of water.

11 I will turn all my mountains into roads,

and my highwaysk will be raised up.l

12 See, they will come from afarm—

some from the north, some from the west,n

some from the region of Aswan.b”

13 Shout for joy,o you heavens;

rejoice, you earth;p

burst into song, you mountains!q

For the Lord comfortsr his people

and will have compassions on his afflicted ones.t

14 But Zionu said, “The Lord has forsakenv me,

the Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the childw she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!x

16 See, I have engravedy you on the palms of my hands;

your wallsz are ever before me.

17 Your children hasten back,

and those who laid you wastea depart from you.

18 Lift up your eyes and look around;

all your children gatherb and come to you.

As surely as I live,c” declares the Lord,

“you will weard them all as ornaments;

you will put them on, like a bride.

19 “Though you were ruined and made desolatee

and your land laid waste,f

now you will be too small for your people,g

and those who devouredh you will be far away.

20 The children born during your bereavement

will yet say in your hearing,

‘This place is too small for us;

give us more space to live in.’i

21 Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who bore me these?j

I was bereavedk and barren;

I was exiled and rejected.l

Who brought thesem up?

I was leftn all alone,o

but these—where have they come from?’ ”

22 This is what the Sovereign Lordp says:

“See, I will beckon to the nations,

I will lift up my bannerq to the peoples;

they will bringr your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their hips.s

23 Kingst will be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.u

They will bow downv before you with their faces to the ground;

they will lick the dustw at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord;x

those who hopey in me will not be disappointed.z”