Isaiah 49

¹ Islands, listen to me, pay attention, remotest peoples. Yahweh called me before I was born, from my mother’s womb he pronounced my name.

² He made my mouth a sharp sword, and hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow, and concealed me in his quiver.

³ He said to me, ‘You are my servant (Israel) in whom I shall be glorified’;

⁴ while I was thinking, ‘I have toiled in vain, I have exhausted myself for nothing’; and all the while my cause was with Yahweh, my reward with my God.

⁶ ‘It is not enough for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel; I will make you the light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth’.

⁷ Thus says Yahweh, the redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to him whose life is despised, whom the nations loathe, to the slave of despots: Kings will stand up when they see you, and princes will bow, for the sake of Yahweh who has been faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.

⁸ Thus says Yahweh: At the favourable time I will answer you, on the day of salvation I will help you. (I have formed you and have appointed you as covenant of the people.) I will restore the land and assign you the estates that lie waste.

⁹ I will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out’, to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves’. On every roadway they will graze, and each bare height shall be their pasture.

¹⁰ They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun shall never plague them; for he who pities them will lead them and guide them to springs of water.

¹¹ I will make a highway of all the mountains, and the high roads shall be banked up.

¹² Some are on their way from afar, others from the north and the west, others from the land of Sinim.[*a]

¹³ Shout for joy, you heavens; exult, you earth! You mountains, break into happy cries! For Yahweh consoles his people and takes pity on those who are afflicted.

¹⁴ For Zion was saying, ‘Yahweh has abandoned me, the Lord has forgotten me’.

¹⁵ Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will never forget you.

¹⁶ See, I have branded you on the palms of my hands, Your ramparts are always under my eye.

¹⁷ Your rebuilders make haste, and your destroyers and despoilers depart.

¹⁸ Look round about you, look, all are assembling, coming to you. By my life – it is Yahweh who speaks – you will wear these as your jewels, they will adorn you as brides are adorned;

¹⁹ for your desolate places and your ruins and your devastated country will now be too small for all your inhabitants, now that your devourers are far away.

²⁰ Once more they will speak in your hearing, those sons you thought were lost, ‘This place is too small for me, give me more space to live in.

²¹ You will then say in your heart, ‘Who has borne me these? I was childless and barren, who has brought these up? I was left all alone, and now, where do these come from?’

²² Thus speaks the Lord Yahweh: I beckon to the nations and hoist my signal for the peoples. They will bring back your sons in the cloak, they will take your daughters on their shoulders.

²³ Kings will be your fosterfathers, their queens your nursing mothers. They will fall prostrate before you, faces to the ground, and lick the dust at your feet. You shall then know that I am Yahweh; and that those who hope in me will not be put to shame.

²⁴ Can spoil be snatched from heroes, or captives escape from a soldier?

²⁵ Yes, thus says Yahweh: The hero’s captive will be snatched away, the soldier’s spoil escape. I myself will fight with those who fight you, and I myself will save your children.

²⁶ I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, they shall get as drunk on their own blood as on new wine. Then all mankind shall know that I, Yahweh, am your saviour and that your redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.