Isaiah 49:14–23

¹⁴But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;

the Lord has forgotten me!”

¹⁵“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

or lack compassion for the son of her womb?

Even if she could forget,

I will not forget you!

¹⁶Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

your walls are ever before Me.

¹⁷Your builders^g hasten back;

your destroyers and wreckers depart from you.

¹⁸Lift up your eyes and look around.

They all gather together; they come to you.

As surely as I live,” declares the LORD,

“you will wear them all as jewelry

and put them on like a bride.

¹⁹For your ruined and desolate places

and your ravaged land

will now indeed be too small for your people,

and those who devoured you will be far away.

²⁰Yet the children of your bereavement

will say in your hearing,

‘This place is too small for us;

make room for us to live here.’

²¹Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who has begotten these for me?

I was bereaved and barren;

I was exiled and rejected.

So who has reared them?

Look, I was left all alone,

so where did they come from?’”

²²This is what the Lord GOD says:

“Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations,

and raise My banner to the peoples.

They will bring your sons in their arms^h

and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

²³Kings will be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.

They will bow to you facedown

and lick the dust at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the LORD;

those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”