Isaiah 49:14-26

Yahweh Remembers Zion

14 But Zion said, "Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me!"

15 Can a woman forget her suckling, [refrain] from having compassion on the child of her womb? Indeed, these may forget, but I, I will not forget you!

16 Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of [my] hands; your walls [are] continually before me.

17 Your children hasten; your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart from you.

18 Lift your eyes up all around and see; all of them gather; they come to you. {As surely as I live}, {declares} Yahweh, surely you shall put on all of them like [an] ornament, and you shall bind them on like [a] bride.

19 Surely your sites of ruins and desolate [places] and land of ruins, surely now you will be {too cramped for your} inhabitants, and those who engulfed you will be far away.

20 Yet the children {born when you were bereaved} will say in your {hearing}, "The place is [too] cramped for me; {make room} for me so that I can dwell."

21 Then you will say in your heart, "Who has borne me these?" And, "I [was] bereaved and barren, exiled and thrust away; so who raised these? Look at me! I was left alone; {where have these come from}?"

22 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Look! I will lift my hand up to [the] nations, and I will raise my signal to [the] peoples, and they shall bring your sons in [their] bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on [their] shoulders.

23 And kings shall be your {guardians}, and their queens your nurses. They shall bow down, {faces} [to the] ground, to you, and they will lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I [am] Yahweh; those who await me shall not be ashamed.

24 Can war-booty be taken from [the] mighty? or can a captive of a righteous [person] be rescued?

25 But thus says Yahweh: "Indeed a captive of [the] mighty shall be taken, and [the] war-booty [of] [the] tyrant shall be rescued, for I myself will dispute [with] your opponent, and I myself will save your children.

26 And I will feed your oppressors their [own] flesh, and they shall be drunk [with] their blood as [with] wine. Then all flesh shall know that I [am] Yahweh, your savior and redeemer, the strong [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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "And"
• [b]. Or "and"
• [c]. Or "move away"
• [d]. Literally "Life I"
• [e]. Literally "declaration of"
• [f]. Hebrew "ruin"
• [g]. Literally "of your bereavement"
• [h]. Literally "ears"
• [i]. Or "And"
• [j]. Literally "those who nurture"
• [k]. Literally "noses"
• [l]. Or "And"
• [m]. The Dead Sea Scroll has "violent"
• [n]. Or "And"