49 Listen, aO isles, unto me;

And hearken, ye people, bfrom far;

cThe Lord hath called me dfrom the womb;

From the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.

2  And he hath made emy mouth flike a sharp sword;

gIn the shadow of his hand hath he hid me,

And made me ha polished shaft;

In his quiver hath he hid me;

3  And said unto me, iThou art my servant,

O Israel, kin whom I will be glorified.

4  Then I said, lI have laboured in vain,

I have spent my strength mfor nought, and in vain:

Yet surely nmy judgment is with the Lord,

And ||my work with my God.

5  And now, saith cthe Lord othat formed me dfrom the womb to be his servant,

To bring Jacob again to him,

||Though Israel be not gathered,

Yet shall I pbe glorious in the eyes of the Lord,

And my God shall be my strength.

6  And he said, ||qIt is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob,

And to restore the ||rpreserved of Israel:

sI will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles,

That thou mayest be tmy salvation unto the end of the earth.

7  uThus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One,

v||To him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers,

wKings shall see and arise,

Princes also shall worship,

Because of xthe Lord that is faithful,

And the Holy One of Israel, and yhe shall choose thee.

8  Thus saith the Lord,

zIn an acceptable time have I heard thee,

And in a day of salvation have I helped thee:

And I will preserve thee, and agive thee for a covenant of the people,

To ||establish the earth, aato cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

9  That thou mayest say bcto the prisoners, Go forth;

bTo them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves.

They shall feed in the ways,

And their pastures shall be in all high places.

10  dThey shall not hunger nor thirst;

eNeither shall fthe heat nor sun smite them:

For he that hath mercy on them gshall lead them,

Even by hthe springs of water gshall he guide them.

11  And iI will make all my mountains a way,

And my highways shall be exalted.

12  Behold, kthese shall come from far:

And, lo, these lfrom the north and lfrom the west;

And these from the land of Sinim.

13  mSing, O heavens; and nbe joyful, O earth;

And mbreak forth into singing, oO mountains:

For the Lord hath comforted his people,

And will have mercy upon his afflicted.

14  pBut Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me,

And my Lord hath forgotten me.

15  Can a woman forget her sucking child,

†That she should not have compassion on qthe son of her womb?

Yea, rthey may forget,

sYet will I not forget thee.

16  Behold, tI have graven thee upon the palms of my hands;

Thy walls are continually before me.

17  Thy children shall make haste;

uThy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

18  vLift up thine eyes round about, and behold:

vAll these gather themselves together, and come to thee.

wAs I live, saith the Lord, xthou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament,

And xxbind them on thee, yas a bride doeth.

19  For yythy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of uthy destruction,

zShall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants,

And they that aswallowed thee up shall be far away.

20  bThe children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears,

The place is too strait for me:

cGive place to me that I may dwell.

21  Then shalt thou say in thine heart, dWho hath begotten me these,

Seeing I have lost my children, and eam desolate,

A captive, and removing to and fro?

And who hath brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone;

These, where had they been?

22  Thus saith the Lord God,

fBehold, gI will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles,

And hset up my standard to the people:

And ithey shall bring thy sons in their †arms,

And thy daughters jshall be carried upon their shoulders.

23  And kkings shall be thy †nursing fathers,

And their †queens thy nursing mothers:

ilThey shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth,

And mlick up the dust of thy feet;

And thou shalt know that I am the Lord:

For nthey shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

24  oShall the prey be taken from the mighty,

Or †the lawful captive delivered?

25  But thus saith the Lord,

Even the †captives of the mighty shall be taken away,

And the prey of the terrible shall be delivered:

For I will contend with phim that contendeth with thee,

And I will save thy children.

26  And qI will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh;

And rthey shall be drunken with their own blood, as with ||sweet wine:

And all flesh sshall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour

And tthy Redeemer, uthe mighty One of Jacob.