Isaiah 49 Study Notes
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49:13 Isaiah began with a pronouncement calling on heavens and earth to serve as witnesses to testify that God’s people deserved their punishment (1:2); now they rejoice in their restoration.
49:14 Zion, personified as a woman, represents Jerusalem. She complained or lamented that God had abandoned her. The verses that follow suggest that what she missed was her “children,” or the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Their absence in exile led her to suggest that God had forgotten her.
49:15 God responded by reflecting on the persistent memory of a mother. Indeed, v. 18 may imply that God addressed Zion as a husband addresses a wife. He understood what she was going through and would soon address her complaints.
49:16 To inscribe something on one’s hands (tattooing perhaps) placed the writing on a bodily location that would be readily seen. In particular the defensive walls of Jerusalem were a concern of the Lord.
49:17 Those who will build will hurry home to Judah. The word for builders is from the Dead Sea Scroll. The Masoretic text here reads “sons.”
49:18 Zion’s children, the people of God, will soon gather as they return to Jerusalem. The picture of Zion wearing her children like wedding jewelry suggests that the passage understood God to be her husband. The returned children were a wedding gift.
49:19-20 The passage envisions a return so large that Jerusalem will not be big enough to hold all its inhabitants.
49:21 Mother Zion will be amazed and will wonder who has fathered all these children. The implied answer is none other than God himself.
49:22-23 The deportation that began the exile saw the people of God dragged off in chains by foreign armies. The picture of the return views the nations carrying them back to their land and showing subservience.
49:24-26 The people of God will doubt that it is possible for them to be delivered from their bondage and oppression, but God will make it clear that he is able not only to rescue them but also to subject their captors to the punishment they deserved.