Isaiah 49:14-26

14 But Zion said, ¹"The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me."

15 ²"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

16 Behold, ³I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

17 Your builders make haste;^{[a] 4}your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

18 ⁵Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. ⁶As I live, declares the LORD, ⁷you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does.

19 "Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land-- ⁸surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20 ⁹The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: ¹⁰'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.'

21 Then you will say in your heart: 'Who has borne me these? ¹¹I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?'"

22 Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, ¹²and raise my signal to the peoples; ¹³and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

23 ¹⁴Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. ¹⁵With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and ¹⁶lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; ¹⁷those who wait for me ¹⁸shall not be put to shame."

24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant^[b] be rescued?

25 For thus says the LORD: ¹⁹"Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

26 ²⁰I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk ²¹with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that ²²I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Isaiah 49:14-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 49

This is a prophecy concerning Christ, and redemption by him; and of the enlargement of the church in the latter day, by the conversion of Jews and Gentiles; which the isles, and people afar off, are exhorted to listen and hearken to, delivered out by the prophet, in the person of Christ; who gives an account of his call to his office, and the time of it; of what the Lord did for him, and said unto him, Isa 49:1-3, then follows a complaint of his labouring in vain, and a correction of it, Isa 49:4 and a further declaration of his call and appointment to office, and of each of the parts of the work assigned him, with encouragement to it, Isa 49:5,6. Christ is again represented under discouraging circumstances, as despised of men, abhorred by the nation, and a servant of rulers; who is encouraged by divine promises that kings should rise up before him, and worship him; that God would be faithful to his promise to him, and yet choose him, hear and help him, at a proper time; preserve him, and give him for a covenant to the people, to the establishment of the earth, and making it habitable, Isa 49:7,8 for the release of prisoners, and feeding, leading, and guiding them, and removing all difficulties out of the way, Isa 49:9-11 when the calling of the Gentiles is foretold, which would occasion great joy in the world, Isa 49:12,13 yet the church is introduced as complaining that she was forsaken of God, Isa 49:14 which is denied, and the contrary affirmed; being dear to the Lord as a sucking child to its mother, and more so; never forgotten by him, and always under his care, Isa 49:16, and, for her comfort, she is assured that those who had destroyed and made her waste should be removed; and that she should have converts that would be an ornament to her, and these numerous, insomuch that the place of their habitation would be too strait and narrow, and which would be matter of astonishment to her, Isa 49:17-21 and, besides those that would be converted in the land of Judea, there would be great numbers in the Gentile world converted by the power of God accompanying his Gospel, set up as a standard there, kings and queens countenancing and encouraging the interest of Christ, Isa 49:22,23 and yet still it is questioned whether the church should be delivered from her oppressors, Isa 49:24 to which it is answered, that she should be delivered, and her persecutors destroyed; by which it would be known that the Lord is the Redeemer and Saviour of his people, Isa 49:25,26.

Cross References

• 1. [Isaiah 40:27; Isaiah 54:6; Isaiah 62:4]
• 2. [Isaiah 43:1; Psalms 27:10]
• 3. Song of Songs 8:6; Revelation 13:16
• 4. See Zechariah 1:18-21
• 5. Isaiah 60:4
• 6. Numbers 14:21; See Ezekiel 5:11
• 7. [Jeremiah 43:12]
• 8. [Zechariah 10:10]
• 9. Isaiah 54:1
• 10. [See ver. 19 above]
• 11. [See ver. 20 above]
• 12. Isaiah 11:12
• 13. Isaiah 14:2
• 14. Isaiah 60:3, 16
• 15. Isaiah 60:14
• 16. Psalms 72:9; [Micah 7:17]
• 17. [Isaiah 40:31]
• 18. Psalms 25:3; Joel 2:27
• 19. [Matthew 12:29; Luke 11:21, 22]
• 20. [Isaiah 9:20; Zechariah 11:9]
• 21. [Revelation 14:20; Revelation 16:6]
• 22. Isaiah 43:3; See Exodus 20:2

Footnotes

• [a]. Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Your children make haste
• [b]. Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac, Vulgate (see also verse 25); Masoretic Text of a righteous man