Isaiah 49:8–21

⁸Thus said Jehovah: ‘In a time of good pleasure I answered thee, And in a day of salvation I helped thee, And I keep thee, and give thee, For a covenant of the people, To establish the earth, To cause to inherit desolate inheritances. ⁹To say to the bound, Go out, To those in darkness, Be uncovered. On the ways they feed, And in all high places is their pasture. ¹⁰They do not hunger, nor thirst, Nor smite them doth mirage and sun, For He who is pitying them doth lead them, And by fountains of waters doth tend them. ¹¹And I have made all My mountains for a way, And My highways are lifted up. ¹²Lo, these from afar come in, And lo, these from the north, and from the sea, And these from the land of Sinim.

¹³Sing, O heavens, and joy, O earth, And break forth, O mountains, with singing, For comforted hath Jehovah His people, And His afflicted ones He doth pity. ¹⁴And Zion saith, ‘Jehovah hath forsaken me, And my Lord hath forgotten me.’ ¹⁵Forget doth a woman her suckling, The loved one—the son of her womb? Yea, these forget—but I—I forget not thee. ¹⁶Lo, on the palms of the hand I have graven thee, Thy walls are before Me continually. 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?