Isaiah 49:12-26

LEB(i) 12 Look! These shall come from afar, And look! These from the north and from the west and these from the land of Sinim." 13 Sing for joy, heavens, and rejoice, earth! Mountains must break forth in rejoicing! For Yahweh has comforted his people, and he will take pity on his afflicted ones. 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."