New International Version
Isaiah 49:19
19“Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
Isaiah 49:19 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.
- English Standard Version (ESV)"Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land— surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
- New King James Version (NKJV)“For your waste and desolate places, And the land of your destruction, Will even now be too small for the inhabitants; And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
- New Living Translation (NLT)“Even the most desolate parts of your abandoned land will soon be crowded with your people. Your enemies who enslaved you will be far away.
Context of Isaiah 49:19
17Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. 18Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride. “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. 20The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ 21Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’ ”
Read all of Isaiah 49Isaiah 49:19 word by word
כִּ֤י חָרְבֹתַ֙יִךְ֙ וְשֹׁ֣מְמֹתַ֔יִךְ וְאֶ֖רֶץ הֲרִֽסֻתֵ֑יךְ כִּ֤י עַתָּה֙ תֵּצְרִ֣י מִיּוֹשֵׁ֔ב וְרָחֲק֖וּ מְבַלְּעָֽיִךְ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- For thy wasteחׇרְבָּהchorbâh · desolationH2723
- and thy desolate placesשָׁמֵםshâmêm · be desolate: destroyedH8074
- and the landאֶ֫רֶץ'erets · land: country/planetH776
- of thy destructionהֲרִיסוּתhărîysûth · ruinsH2035
- shall even now be too narrowיָצַרyâtsar · be distressedH3334
- by reason of the inhabitantsיָשַׁבyâshab · to dwellH3427
- and they that swallowed thee upבָּלַעbâla‛ · to swallow upH1104
- shall be far awayרָחַקrâchaq · to removeH7368
Cross-references for Isaiah 49:19
- Isaiah 49:8This is what the Lord says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
- Isaiah 51:3The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
- Isaiah 54:1“Sing, barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the Lord.
- Jeremiah 30:18“This is what the Lord says: “ ‘I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place.
- Jeremiah 33:10“This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more
- Ezekiel 36:9I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor; you will be plowed and sown,
- Hosea 1:10“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’
- Zechariah 2:4and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it.
- Zechariah 10:10I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them.
- Isaiah 49:17Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.
- Psalms 56:1Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack.
- Psalms 124:3they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us;
- Proverbs 1:12let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
- Jeremiah 30:16“ ‘But all who devour you will be devoured; all your enemies will go into exile. Those who plunder you will be plundered; all who make spoil of you I will despoil.
- Jeremiah 51:33This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.”
- Ezekiel 36:3Therefore prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Because they ravaged and crushed you from every side so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and the object of people’s malicious talk and slander,
Commentaries on Isaiah 49:19
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 19For thy waste and thy desolate places - Thy land over which ruin has been spread, and ever which the exile nation mourns. And the land of thy destruction - That is, thy land laid in ruins. The construction is not uncommon where a noun is used to express the sense of an adjective. Thus in Psalm 2:6, the Hebrew phrase (margin) is correctly rendered my holy hill.‘ Here the sense is, that their entire country had been so laid waste as to be a land of…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 18-23Verses 18-23 Zion is addressed as an afflicted widow, bereaved of her children. Numbers flock to her, and she is assured that they come to be a comfort to her. There are times when the church is desolate and few in number; yet its desolations shall not last for ever, and God will repair them. God can raise up friends for returning Israelites, even among Gentiles. They shall bring their children, and make them thy children. Let all deal tenderly and…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 19-21The population growth would extend beyond Israel to include people from other nations who turn to the Lord (see Isaiah 56:6–8; Revelation 7:9). make room: The increased population would need space far beyond Israel's traditional borders (see also Zechariah 2:4).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1919. land of thy destruction--thy land once the scene of destruction. too narrow--(Is 54:1, 2; Zec 10:10).Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 49:19
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 49
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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