Isaiah 49:20–26

²⁰The children born in the time of your bereavement

will yet say in your hearing:

“The place is too crowded for me;

make room for me to settle.”^*

²¹Then you will say in your heart,

“Who has borne me these?

I was bereaved and barren,

exiled and put away—

so who has reared these?

I was left all alone—

where, then, have these come from?”^*

²²Thus says the Lord God:

I will soon lift up my hand to the nations

and raise my signal to the peoples,

and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.^*

²³Kings shall be your foster fathers

and their queens your nursing mothers.

With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you

and lick the dust of your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord;

those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.^*

²⁴Can the prey be taken from the mighty

or the captives of a tyrant^y be rescued?

²⁵But thus says the Lord:

Even the captives of the mighty will be taken,

and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued,

for I will contend with those who contend with you,

and I will save your children.^*

²⁶I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,

and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.

Then all flesh shall know

that I am the Lord your Savior

and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.^*