Isaiah 49:14-50:3

14But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

15“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

16See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.

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.

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.

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?’ ”

22This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.

23Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD ; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”

24Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce Dead Sea Scrolls, Vulgate and Syriac (see also Septuagint and verse 25); Masoretic Text righteous ?

25But this is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save. 26I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Israel’s Sin and the Servant’s Obedience 1This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

2When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

3I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.”