Isaiah 49:17–23

¹⁷Hastened have those building thee, Those destroying thee, and laying thee waste, go out from thee.

¹⁸Lift up round about thine eyes and see, All of them have been gathered, They have come to thee. I live, an affirmation of Jehovah! Surely all of them as an ornament thou puttest on, And thou bindest them on like a bride. ¹⁹Because thy wastes, and thy desolate places, And the land of thy ruins, Surely now are straitened because of inhabitants, And far off have been those consuming thee. ²⁰Again do the sons of thy bereavement say in thine ears: ‘The place is too strait for me, Come nigh to me—and I dwell.’ ²¹And thou hast said in thy heart: ‘Who hath begotten for me—these? And I bereaved and gloomy, A captive, and turned aside, And these—who hath nourished? Lo, I—I was left by myself, these—whence are they? ²²Thus said the Lord Jehovah: ‘Lo, I lift up unto nations My hand, And unto peoples I raise up Mine ensign, And they have brought thy sons in the bosom, And thy daughters on the shoulder are carried. ²³And kings have been thy nursing fathers, And their princesses thy nursing mothers; Face to the earth—they bow down to thee, And the dust of thy feet they lick up, And thou hast known that I am Jehovah, That those expecting Me are not ashamed.