Isaiah 49
1 Listen to me, islands; pay attention, distant peoples. The LORD called me from the womb; from my mother’s body he spoke my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword and hid me in the shadow of his hand; he made me a polished arrow and kept me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing, for no purpose.” Yet my cause is with the LORD, and my reward is with my God.
5 And now the LORD speaks—the one who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, so that Israel may be gathered to him. I am honored in the LORD’s eyes, and my God has become my strength.
6 He said, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back Israel’s survivors. I will make you a light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”
7 This is what the LORD says, Israel’s Redeemer, its Holy One, to the one despised, abhorred by the nations, a servant of rulers: “Kings will see and rise; princes will bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who chose you.”
8 This is what the LORD says: “At a favorable time I answered you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. I will protect you and make you a covenant for the people, to restore the land and allot its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ They will feed along the roads, and there will be pasture on every barren hill.
10 They will not hunger or thirst; the scorching heat and sun will not strike them, because the one who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them to springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.
12 Look, these are coming from far away; look, these from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.”
13 Sing, heavens; rejoice, earth; burst into song, mountains! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
14 Zion said, “The LORD has abandoned me; the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 Can a woman forget the baby she nurses, or fail to have compassion on the child in her womb? Even if they forget, I will not forget you.
16 Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are always before me.
17 Your children hurry back; those who destroyed and laid you waste are leaving you.
18 Lift your eyes and look around: they have all gathered and come to you. As surely as I live, declares the LORD, you will wear them all as an ornament and fasten them on like a bride.
19 For your ruins, your desolate places, and your devastated land will now be too cramped for the inhabitants, and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 The children taken from you will still say in your hearing, “This place is too cramped for me; make room for me to live.”
21 Then you will say in your heart, “Who bore these for me? I was childless and barren, exiled and cast away. Who raised these? Look, I was left alone; where were they?”
22 This is what the Lord GOD says: “Look, I will raise my hand to the nations and lift my signal to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
23 Kings will be your guardians, and their princesses your nurses. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD, and those who wait for me will not be put to shame.”
24 Can what a warrior has taken be taken from him, or can a captive escape from a tyrant?
25 For this is what the LORD says: “Even the warrior’s captives will be taken from him, and what the tyrant has taken will escape. I myself will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will become drunk on their own blood as on new wine. Then all humanity will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
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