Isaiah 49:9-26

9saying to the prisoners, “Come out,” and to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.” They will feed along the pathways, and their pastures will be on all the barren heights.

10They will not hunger or thirst, the scorching heat or sun will not strike them; for their compassionate one will guide them, and lead them to springs.

11I will make all my mountains into a road, and my highways will be raised up.

12See, these will come from far away, from the north and from the west, and from the land of Sinim.

13Shout for joy, you heavens! Earth, rejoice! Mountains break into joyful shouts! For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

14Zion says, “The Lord has abandoned me; the Lord has forgotten me!”

15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you.

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

17Your builders hurry; those who destroy and devastate you will leave you.

18Look up, and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As I live” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “you will wear all your children as jewelry, and put them on as a bride does.

19For your waste and desolate places and your land marked by ruins will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

20Yet as you listen, the children that you have been deprived of will say, ‘This place is too small for me; make room for me so that I may settle.’

21Then you will say within yourself, ‘Who fathered these for me? I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive, exiled and wandering — but who brought them up? See, I was left by myself — but these, where did they come from?’”

22This is what the Lord God says: Look, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

23Kings will be your guardians and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who put their hope in me will not be put to shame.

24Can the prey be taken from a mighty man, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered?

25For this is what the Lord says: “Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken, and the prey of a tyrant will be delivered; I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will save your children.

26I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. Then all humanity will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”