Isaías 49

The servant called before birth

¹Coastlands, listen to me; \q peoples who live far away, give heed. \q The LORD called me while I was still in the womb; \q he spoke my name while I was yet inside my mother. ²He gave me a mouth as sharp as a sword \q and kept me covered in the shade of his hand. \q He shaped me into a keen, polished arrow \q and tucked me away in his quiver. ³He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel; \q in you I will make my beauty known.”^{ab 4}But I said, “I have toiled for no purpose; \q I have worn out my strength for what is empty, a mere breath. \q Even so, my case rests with the LORD, \q and my God holds my wages.” ⁵And now the LORD speaks, who shaped me in the womb to be his servant, \q to turn Jacob back to him \q and to gather Israel to him \q (for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, \q and my God has become my strength),^{c 6}he says: “It is not enough that you should be my servant \q to raise up the tribes of Jacob \q and bring home the survivors of Israel. \q I will make you a light for the nations as well, \q so that you may be my salvation to the farthest edge of the earth.”^d

A time of favor and a road home

⁷The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, says this to the one whom everyone despises, whom the nation detests, the servant of rulers: \q Kings will see you and rise to their feet; \q princes will see you and bow low, \q because of the LORD, who keeps faith, \q the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. ⁸The LORD says this: In a time of favor I answered you; \q on the day of salvation I came to your aid. \q I will watch over you and give you to be a covenant for the people, \q to set the land on its feet again \q and to hand out once more its ruined estates, ⁹telling the prisoners, “Go free,” \q and those in the dark, “Come out into the open.” \q They will graze along the roads, \q and every bare hilltop will be their grazing land. ¹⁰They will not go hungry or thirsty, \q and neither the searing heat nor the sun will beat them down, \q for the one who has mercy on them will be their guide; \q he will bring them to springs of water. ¹¹Every one of my mountains I will turn into a pathway, \q and my main roads will be built up high. ¹²Look, they are coming from far away; \q look, some from the north and from the west, \q and some from the land of Sinim.^{e 13}Heavens, ring out with joy! Earth, be glad! \q Mountains, break out in cries of joy! \q For the LORD has comforted his people \q and will show tender love to his suffering ones.

Zion is not forgotten

¹⁴But Zion said, “The LORD has left me behind; \q the Lord has forgotten all about me.” ¹⁵Could a woman forget the baby she is nursing, \q or stop feeling tender love for the son she carried? \q Women such as these may forget, \q but I will not forget you. ¹⁶Look, I have carved you into my palms; \q your walls are never out of my sight. ¹⁷Your children are hurrying home, \q while those who wrecked you and stripped you bare are leaving you.^{f 18}Raise your eyes and look in every direction: \q they are all gathering and coming to you. \q As I live, declares the LORD, you will put every one of them on like jewelry \q and wrap them about you like a bride on her wedding day. ¹⁹Your ruins and your abandoned places, \q your devastated land, \q will now be too crowded for the people who live in them, \q and those who devoured you will be long gone. ²⁰The children born while you were mourning your losses will still say in your hearing, \q “There is not enough room here for me; move aside so I can have a place to live.”^{g 21}Then you will ask yourself, “Who fathered these children for me? \q I had lost my children and could bear no more; \q I was exiled and cast aside. Who raised these? \q I was left all by myself; \q where have these been?”

²²The Lord GOD says this: See, I will raise my hand to beckon the nations \q and lift my signal flag for the peoples. \q They will carry your sons home in their arms, \q and your daughters will ride on their shoulders. ²³Kings will look after your children as guardians, and their princesses will nurse them for you. \q They will bow low before you with their faces to the ground \q and lick the dust off your feet. \q Then you will know that I am the LORD, \q and that none who wait in hope for me end up ashamed.

²⁴Can loot be pulled from a warrior’s grasp? \q Can captives held by one who is in the right get free?^{h 25}But the LORD says this: Yes, a warrior’s captives will be taken from him, \q and a tyrant’s loot will slip out of his hands. \q I myself will take on the one who fights you, \q and I myself will rescue your children. ²⁶Those who oppress you I will feed with their own flesh, \q and they will get drunk on their own blood as if it were new wine. \q Then all humankind will know that I, the LORD, am the one who saves you, \q your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.