Isaiah 49:14-21

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁴ But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”^(A)
15 Can a woman forget her nursing child
    or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these might forget,
    yet I will not forget you.^(B)
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.^(C)
17 Your builders outdo your destroyers,^[a]
    and those who laid you waste go away from you.^(D)
18 Lift up your eyes all around and see;
    they all gather; they come to you.
As I live, says the Lord,
    you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
    and like a bride you shall bind them on.^(E)

¹⁹ For your wastelands, your desolate places,
    and your devastated land—
now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.^(F)
20 The children born in the time of your bereavement
    will yet say in your hearing:
“The place is too crowded for me;
    make room for me to settle.”^(G)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
    “Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away—
    so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
    where, then, have these come from?”^(H)