A few weeks ago, in Isaiah 47, we read about the fall of Babylon, the capital city of the Babylonian empire. The city was described using female imagery-- as a delicate virgin daughter, as a queen. She was described as being proud, and boastful, and savage in her treatment of God's people. And when God described her upcoming judgment, He did so using that female imagery. Lady Babylon was a queen, who would lose her throne. Lady Babylon was above the ordinary struggles of life, but she'd be forced to go out into the fields, and become a common worker. She'd lose both her husband-- probably the Babylonian gods-- and her kids-- probably her citizens. She would move from a lofty, proud, exalted place, to something very low and humble.
This week, we will find ourselves once again hearing the words of a city, and the city is once again described using female imagery. This time, it's Jerusalem, and she's described as Lady Zion. So the prophet/God sets out a tale of two cities, you could say. Lady Babylon is currently exalted, and is going to be brought low by God. And Lady Zion? She's been brought low by God, and the question is, whether or not that will be reversed.
Before we are introduced to this lady, we should refresh our memory of last week's passage. In a perfect world, we would've read, and worked through, Isaiah 49:7-50:3 all in one sitting. I couldn't pull that off, but this is a compromise of sorts. I'll read through verse 13, and then pause. And these words, just as a refresher, you should hear as being addressed to Israel. That's the one who is despised, and detested, and a servant to rulers:
(7) Thus has said Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, His holy one,
to the one whose life was despised (see NET Bible),
to the one detested by the nations (following LXX, van der Mere, against MT),
to a servant of rulers [Isaiah 52:5; *Shalom Paul]:
"Kings shall see,
and princes shall stand [Leviticus 19:32; Job 29:8; Judges 3:20; *Shalom Paul];
and/that they may bow down [Isaiah 49:23; *Paul],
because of Yahweh, who [is] reliable/trustworthy-- the Holy One of Israel--
and He has chosen you." [Isaiah 44:1, 2; 45:4]
(8) Thus has said Yahweh: [very close connections to Isaiah 42:6-7 in what follows]
"In a time of favor, I will answer you (following 1QIsaa, NIV, against MT, in translating as imperfects here and
next line],
while in a day of salvation/victory I will help you--
I will rescue you,
and I will make you into a covenant people, [Isaiah 42:6; an inverted construct]
by restoring/raising up the land, [God is doing these infinitive verbs, how He rescues and makes
them a covenant people]
by giving as an inheritance the desolate inheritance, [Isaiah 49:19; 61:4; 62:4; 64:9]
(9) by saying to the prisoners,
"Come out!," [Isaiah 48:20]
to the ones who [are] in the darkness, [Isaiah 42:7; contrast Isaiah 47:5; *Paul]
"Reveal yourselves!"
Along the roads, they will feed, [Isaiah 40:11]
while on every barren height, their pasturage [will be]. [Isaiah 41:18]
(10) They will not be hungry,
and they will not be thirsty, [Isaiah 48:21]
and they will not be struck with a scorching heat and the sun,
because The One loving them will lead them,
while to springs of water He will guide them--
(11) I will make all the mountains into a road,
while my highways will be built up (*van der Mere).
(12) LOOK! These ones, from far off, they will come,
while LOOK! These ones, from the north and from the west, [Isaiah 43:4; 60:4, 9; *Paul]
while these ones from the land of Syene!
(13) Sing for joy, O heavens, [Isaiah 44:23; 52:9; 55:12]
and rejoice, O earth!
May they break forth-- the mountains-- in singing,
because Yahweh has comforted his people,
and He answered him (=Israel, his people-- note the parallelism-- not Jesus).
He will have compassion,
So in these verses, God promises that He will reverse his people's fortunes, and restore them. He will make them honored in the sight of the nations. He will restore their ancestral lands to them-- the promised land. He will free prisoners. And God will bring them home, on a freshly built highways, alongside plentiful water, and plentiful pasturage. No matter where God's people find themselves in exile, no matter where they are scattered across the nations, they will find that the long journey home is the best road trip of all time. And the prophet then closes off this part in verse 13 with a call to all of creation to praise God. When God rescues you, and restores you, and brings you home, everything God has created should celebrate. That's the natural response to God's help, and blessings. And if you've ever wondered why we sing on Sunday mornings-- there's a big part of your answer.
Now, if you're God's people stuck in Babylonian exile hearing this prophet, how do you hear his words? As a pipe dream? As a nice story, to be believed by the gullible? Or do you find that these words spark some hope from a place so deep inside of you, that you thought it was dead?
The people originally addressed are a tough crowd. They've been a nut that God can't crack. And so I'd expect the response to be negative. Sometimes when you share good news with God's people, and offer them a word of hope, the response will be harsh, and cynical, because those people feel low, and abandoned, and forgotten (anticipating Isaiah 50:4-9). They maybe haven't turned to other gods. But they've responded to feelings of being abandoned, by long since giving up on God.
There was a time in life, when that was me. When I was a student at Bethel Seminary, the most brilliant, godly, caring professor at the seminary died a terrible death from pancreatic cancer. Technically, I should say, he died of radiation poisoning. But it was really bad. And to have this happen at a seminary, where the entire student body, and all the faculty and support staff, were praying for him, was a bitter pill. How could God let Dr. Verseput die? I had questions, and no answers.
And then, a few years later, I was doing regular pulpit supply in a small town, and a dairy farmer developed cancer, and he died, leaving behind a widow with little kids to somehow keep a small farm of about 50 milk cows going. I prayed hard, and emotionally, with my kids hard for him, and he died. God didn't seem to be at all moved by my prayers, or my tears.
So when I read passages like this one-- like verse 13-- which celebrate how God has comforted his people, and how He's answered them (and for God to answer his people, means He says "yes" in OT thought), and how He will have compassion-- it's not hard for me to picture where God's people stuck in exile were at. It's the same place I was. And the same place that some of you are very quietly at, probably.
So this invitation to all of creation goes out-- join me in celebrating God's compassion, and help! Verse 14:
(14) and Zion (feminine singular) said,
"He has abandoned/forsaken me-- Yahweh, ["He has abandoned me" is focused; Isaiah 54:6, 7; 60:15; 62:4; 62:12],
while the Lord has forgotten me."
If you are in this dark, low place, you hear verse 14, and now you celebrate a little. That's you, right? You live in the dark shadows of the Bible-- the Psalm 88, the Job, the Ecclesiastes, the verse 14s.
This resonates with you. How can you praise a God whose abandoned you, and forgotten you? Who would ask you to do such a thing?
But Zion's words here also do something else. Up until now, you, God's exiled people, have been the focus. God's been working with you, from your perspective, as you are scattered across the nations. But now, this pivot to talking about Jerusalem changes that. Jerusalem is Lady Zion. She's royalty. And in the thought word of the OT, she's also something else-- she's your mom. A city's citizens, are her children.
So talking about Lady Zion shifts your thinking. God helps you see things from mother's perspective (*John Goldingay, Isaiah, Bible for Everyone). How's mother doing? And if you do get to go home, and see your mom, what shape is she in?
Many years ago, when I occasionally watched the news, Fox had something about a family in Fargo who went on
vacation somewhere nice, in the middle of winter. While they were gone, a pipe burst in the house, somewhere upstairs. The family came back to a house that had a frozen waterfall coming out the upper story of their house.
I'm sure the whole house was ruined.
Usually, we think about how nice it is to get to come home, and sleep in our beds, and sit in our favorite chairs, and eat food out of our own fridges. But what happens when you come to a city, in this case, that's been ravaged by war?
That's the situation Jerusalem is in. Her walls have been destroyed. Her temple, destroyed. To look at Lady Zion, is to see a woman who was once beautiful, and loved, but now... what is she?
Lady Zion tells you. These are her words. She's been abandoned by God. She's like a wife, then, whose husband has run off. And worse than that, she's been forgotten completely. She's become someone who God used to know.
So if you find yourself thinking about a mom who is abandoned by her husband, and completely forgotten-- you are on the right track. That's how Lady Zion sees herself. It's a tragic situation.
Into this, God responds, addressing the city of Jerusalem, as Lady Zion.
Verse 15:
(15) Can a woman/wife forget her infant/suckling,
[forget] to love (same word as verse 10) the child of her womb?
Although these may forget,
I will not forget you (feminine singular).
God responds to Lady Zion, by appealing to her using a question from the world of women. Can a nursing mother forget her nursing baby?
Those of you who nursed your babies know the answer that the answer to this, is "no." Moms, in general, don't forget about their babies. Dads maybe do. I know a dad at the grocery store with his baby one time, who forgot to buy something on the list. And he left his cart, 8 month old baby in it, to get the missing thing. Had no idea where his baby was, for like 1 minute. Maybe 2. And then came back, and realized there was a baby in that cart, and that it was his baby. Dads can forget.
But moms, in general, don't. And for a nursing mom, this is doubly true. Your own bodies need your baby. Go too long without feeding your baby, and you will think about nothing else than finding some relief from the pain. The pain will keep you from forgetting (*John Goldingay, Isaiah, Bible for Everyone, was beyond helpful here).
That's the idea behind this verse. God is like a mother who can't possibly forget her baby girl. God created her, He's nursed her. His entire being in a basic, fundamental way, revolves around loving her. You can't forget the suckling who depends on you for life.
And maybe, we are supposed to take this idea just a bit further. God is like a mom for whom it's been a while since she's nursed her baby. God hasn't given her much at all lately, and that pains God, just as much as it pains the baby. God's been forcing himself to not help (Isaiah 42:14), but his own being makes continuing to do nothing almost impossible. God, like a nursing mom, will find himself basically having to help, because it's too painful to do otherwise.
In verse 16, God encourages Lady Zion using different imagery:
(16) LOOK! Upon the hands I have engraved [Ezekiel 4:1; Isaiah 30:8] you;
your walls [are] in front of me continually.
God says that Lady Zion is tattooed, basically, onto his hands. Anytime God uses his hands to do anything-- any time He raises his strong right hand, any time He gathers his people together-- He sees the tattoo of Lady Zion. And every time God looks out at his creation, the thing He sees first, the thing that gets his attention first, is the broken down city walls. This broken city is right at the top of God's to-do list. That's what's always right in front of him.
So has God forgotten about Lady Zion?
Not at all. She is constantly on God's mind.
Verses 17-23, I'll read all at once. As I read, focus on God's promises to Lady Zion: (1) that you will be rebuilt; (2) that your children-- your citizens-- will come home; (3) that you will become so packed with people, that your children wonder where they will possibly find a place to live; (4) that everyone harming you, destroying you, will be cast outside the city (Revelation 21:8, 27; 22:15).
(17) They hurry (qatal)-- your builders/sons [Hebrew is uncertain, but means one or the other];
the ones tearing you down and the ones laying waste to you-- from you they will depart.
(18) Lift up your eyes all around,
and see:
all of them have gathered. [Isaiah 40:11; 43:5; 54:7; 56:8; 60:4]
They have come to you.
As I live-- utterance of Yahweh-- surely ("ki") all of them, like beautiful jewelry, you will dress yourself with, [Isaiah 61:10; Jeremiah 2:32]
and you will fasten them to yourself like the bride.
(19) Surely ("ki"), your ruins and your desolations and your devastated land-- [Isaiah 6:11-12]
surely ("ki") now you will be cramped from inhabitants/dwellers,
and they will be far off-- the ones swallowing you.
(20) Still yet they will say in your ears, the sons of your bereavement (=the sons you've painfully lost),
"Too cramped for me, the place is," ["Too cramped for me" is focused]
Make room for me, [2 Kings 6:1]
that I may dwell.
(21) and you will say in your heart/mind,
"Who begot/birthed for me these ones, [contrast Isaiah 47:8-9]
while I was bereaved (v. 20) and barren, exiled and turned away,
while these ones-- who raised [them]?
LOOK! I was left all alone!
These ones-- from where [are] they?
(22) Thus has said the Lord Yahweh:
"LOOK! I will lift up to the nations my hand,
while to the peoples, I will raise my banner, [Isaiah 11:12; 13:2]
and they will bring your sons in [their] arms,
while your daughters, upon the shoulders, they will be carried, [Isaiah 66:12]
(23) and kings will be the ones nurturing (Esther 2:7) you,
while their queens, your wet-nurses.
With noses to the ground, they will bow down to you,
while the dust of your feet they will lick up, [contrast Isaiah 47:1]
that you may know/acknowledge that I [am] Yahweh,
when the ones waiting on me aren't ashamed.
The day of coming, God says, when Lady Zion will become like a queen. She will have lots of kids, that she will wear like expensive jewelry. A city's true wealth and beauty are its citizens. When there's lots of people, a city looks good. When a downtown is packed, with every shop front full, and every parking lot full, a city looks good. Lady Zion will also receive honor from the nations-- from kings and queens. And on that day, when that happens, God says that "you will know that I am Yahweh."
So God tells Lady Zion, "You look at your lowly position, and feel abandoned, and forgotten. But on the day when I comes through, and make everything right, and bring you from shame to honor, you will know/acknowledge that I am Yahweh."
With this, we come to verses 24-26. Here, God pivots, and tackles head-on the question of who has more power. Is it God? Or is it Babylon? And the reason this question needs to be addressed, is because there are always two questions God's people need an answer to, when they need help. (1) Is God willing to help? (2) And is God able? So in everything up to this point, God has said He's willing (a great thing to write into the Bible margins of v. 14-23). But is He able (a great thing to write into the Bible margins of vs. 24-26)?
(24) Can it be taken from a warrior-- loot?, (In Mark 3:20-35, Jesus applies these verses to himself)
or the captive of a tyrant-- can he be rescued?
(25) But thus has said Yahweh:
"What's more, the captive of a warrior will be taken,
while the loot of a tyrant will be rescued,
while with your opponents, I-- I will show hostility,
while your sons I-- I will save,
(26) and I will cause the ones oppressing you to eat their [own] flesh,
while like the wine, their blood will be drunk,
and/that all flesh (=people) will know/acknowledge that I [am] Yahweh, The One saving you, (compare
verse 23)
and The One redeeming you,
The Mighty One of Jacob.
God's enemies are powerful. They are warriors; they are tyrants. We like to say that God is "All-Powerful," but that doesn't mean that He's the only one with power. What we mean by that, is that God is "More-Powerful." God is the One who can defeat every warrior. He can take whatever loot He wants, from anyone. And who is the loot here? God's exiled people (cf. Mark 3:27). So God is going to straight-up bully Babylon. He will overpower the superpower. He will free every prisoner. And then He will bring judgment on Babylon. Everyone who dares attack God's people eventually faces God's terrible anger and judgment.
And on the day that God does this, just like in verse 23, all flesh-- all people-- will acknowledge who Yahweh is.
What we are seeing here, is at least a partial answer to the question of how Israel will fulfill its servant calling to God, to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 42). It's not that Israel will send out missionaries. It's that the whole world will see God comfort his people, not just with words, but with action. When God defeats his people's enemies, and brings his people home, and restores them, the whole world will acknowledge that Yahweh is the God who saves, the God who redeems. Yahweh is the Mighty One.
So if you're a Gentile, living among the nations, and you see Yahweh do amazing, impossible things for his people, you'll find yourself thinking about the gods you serve. You'll compare, and contrast. And the idea is that the nations will find themselves coming to Yahweh, the God of Israel, because of the great love and power that He showed his own people.
I should pause here for a second, and just say, none of this is directly related to the end times. This has nothing to do, directly, with Jesus' return. The exaltation of Lady Zion is something that will happen for the exiles in Babylon, living in the sixth century B.C. The judgment God brings, is on ancient Babylon. We can see how all these themes relate to Revelation. We can see how they get picked up, and adapted. But Revelation is like a bigger, final version of all of this. It's version 2.0.
So at this point, if you were one of the Babylonian exiles, do think you'd find yourself encouraged? Do you find yourself ready to believe? Or are you still wrestling with the feelings of being abandoned, and forgotten?
What God's people really want, sometimes, is an explanation. Why didn't God act? Why didn't God help?
We don't always get the answers. But here, God's people do. So God/prophet has turned from addressing Lady Zion, to addressing God's exiled people. They've been the true audience all along. But now, instead of overhearing a conversation between God and Lady Zion, God simply talks to them.
And let me just say, the explanation God gives his exiled people, isn't necessarily a universal explanation for why God doesn't help. But as we read this, just see, that sometimes the fault, and the blame, don't lie with God.
50:1:
(50:1) Thus has said Yahweh:
"Where [is] this: [the] book/document of the divorce of your mother,
when I sent her away?,
or who is my lender,
whom I sold you to him?
LOOK! Because of your sin/guilt you were sold, ["because of your sin" is focused]
and because of your rebellions your mother was sent away. ["because of your rebellions" is focused]
God admits that He abandoned his people. I'm not sure how else to say it. God is the husband who sent your mother-- Lady Zion-- away. God is the owner, who sold his people.
So it's not that God sat back and did nothing, and let his people be conquered and scattered. It's not that God let this terrible thing happen to them. God rejected them, and sold them, because of their sin and rebellion. God didn't let this happen; He made it happen.
The real question, though, is whether that's the end of the story of God and Israel. Has God forgotten his nursing baby? When God sent mother away, was that a divorce? In Hebrew, that's divorce language. When you want the marriage to be done, you send her away.
But we can also hear that this language doesn't have to be final. I can imagine a married couple having a terrible fight that ends with one spouse saying, "Get out! Go!"
So God sent mother away. Is this a divorce? Is it permanent? Or, if we focus on the other image, of God selling his people, we find ourselves asking, is the sale final?
And in answer to that question, God sounds like a government worker. Where's the paperwork that shows this is final? Who has the title? The deed? Who has the certificate of divorce?
There's no paperwork. And if there's no paperwork, then nothing's actually finalized. So if God is married to Lady Zion, what they've been through is more like a separation, than a divorce. And if nothing's finalized, nothing's permanent. What's been done here, can be undone.
So if you're God's people in exile, now you know all the answers. It's your fault. And you also know that this isn't the last word (assuming you believe the prophet).
God has other questions for you to think about. Verse 2:
(2) Why did I come,
and there was no one?
[Why] did I call,
and there was no one answering?
Is my hand actually too shortened for redemption,
or isn't there within me strength to deliver?
LOOK! By my rebuke I dry up the sea.
I make rivers a desert/wilderness.
They stink-- their fish-- because there are no waters,
and they die because of the thirst.
(3) I clothe the heavens with darkness,
while sackcloth, I make their covering.
God describes himself, as being an accidental hermit. God came to live among his people. His presence, his glory, his name-- something-- He put in the temple. God came, but the people didn't come. God called, but no one answered.
So who abandoned who? God sounds like a hurt husband. "Am I the problem? Am I the one who failed? I'm the one who was abandoned first. I'm the one who lived in an empty house, wondering where my wife ran off to."
So it's not that God has suddenly become unable to save his people. It's not that Babylon or its gods (Isaiah 46:1-2) overpowered God. God controls the chaotic forces (the "sea") with a rebuke. He has power even over the heavens, and can make the stars move from glory to grieving.
Who is the problem? Who is the one who has failed in this relationship? It's not God. It's you.
Sometimes, the reason we feel abandoned by God, and forgotten, is because we abandoned God. We tell ourselves we can run off, and chase other things, and that God will be good, and loyal, and faithful. We think God will be cool with being an accidental hermit.
In our marriage covenant with God, God is not that kind of husband. God is a jealous God. When God comes close, He expects his people to be there (shades of Eden?). When God calls, He expects his people to answer. God is holy-- radically committed to his people. And God insists that his people reciprocate. To be holy, is to be radically committed to God.
What happens if you fail at this?
In ordinary life, at the risk of being misunderstood here, we all sin on at least a somewhat regular basis. Maybe we can go a week without intentionally, deliberately, knowingly sinning. Maybe sometimes when we find ourselves singing, "Our sins they are many, his mercies are more," there are weeks where we shake our heads "no" to that, and are bothered by that. There should be weeks like that. We shouldn't find that those are the lyrics we consistently sing the loudest and best [it'd be a much better song if the lyrics were, "Our sins they were many"].
When you sin-- when you rebel against God-- the idea is that you should straightforwardly, immediately, confess that and repent. "Father, I was anxious, or greedy, or lustful, or whatever. I failed. Father, please forgive me, as I have forgiven my debtors." You pray that, and then you move on. You don't have to wallow in feelings of guilt. You don't have to do penance. And most of the time, God is slow to anger, rich in love, abounding in mercy, and you and God move on together.
The type of failure this passage is talking about, is something different. It's when you persistently, intentionally, rebel against God. God's exiled people have set up idols in their houses. They've turned to other gods. There's a willfulness, and intentionality, and ongoing rebellion here, that really sets you up to receive God's judgment.
And many times, what that judgment looks like, is God leaving you, and staying far away from you. Try going through life without God's help, and protection, and you'll find that you aren't quite as capable, or strong, as you thought. When we walk away from God, and abandon him, we think we'll be ok. But if God then responds by sending us away even farther, and abandoning us-- then see how that goes. Right?
So I should say, again, that I'm not really trying to give an answer this morning to all of our hard questions. I don't expect to ever know for sure why Dr. Verseput died so young. I'm certainly not going to say that it was because he was sinful, and rebellious. And I don't know why life is so hard for some of my own kids. I don't think we, as a family, are sinful and rebellious. We've thought about it, and prayed about, and I don't think that's our explanation. I'm not convinced that we supposed to hear 50:1-3 as the answer to our question.
But I will always take God at his word, that He is willing to rescue, and He is able to rescue. And I will carry that trust and expectation with me to my dying day. God is willing to rescue: He is like a nursing mom, who can't and won't ignore her children for very long. God is also able to rescue: Our God rebukes the Sea, and it dries up. Our God speaks, and the heavens put on sackcloth.
So I would love an explanation. I'd love a prophet to come to me, and give me my own version of 50:1-3, and tell me why life is hard, and why it sometimes seems why God has abandoned me, and forgotten me. I'd like to know why my kids are suffering. When we bring our kids forward for prayer, I always kind of hope that God will give us a word. But in the absence of that, I will trust, again, that God is willing, and God is able.
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Now, there is a sense in which we westerners struggle to hear this passage the way we should. When we find ourselves thinking that God has abandoned us, and forgotten us, it's almost always in the context of sickness, or in the context of something terrible happening to our kids. Those are the things that bother us the most, and that raise a question in our minds about who God is.
But in other parts of the world, I imagine that God's people, the church, wrestle more with these questions because their experience of the world, and of the nations, in particular, resembles that of God's exiled people in Babylon.
And for those Christians, the verses in this passage that pop out at them, will be ones that makes us slightly uncomfortable. Verses 22-23:
(22) Thus has said the Lord Yahweh:
"LOOK! I will lift up to the nations my hand,
while to the peoples, I will raise my banner, [Isaiah 11:12; 13:2]
and they will bring your sons in [their] arms,
while your daughters, upon the shoulders, they will be carried, [Isaiah 66:12]
(23) and kings will be the ones nurturing (Esther 2:7) you,
while their queens, your wet-nurses.
With noses to the ground, they will bow down to you,
while the dust of your feet they will lick up, [contrast Isaiah 47:1]
that you may know that I [am] Yahweh,
when the ones waiting on me aren't ashamed.
We live in a world where many nations, and leaders, and peoples, despise us, and look down on us (Isaiah 49:7). We live in a world where many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are oppressed, and prisoners in different ways. Despite that, they "wait on" God, trusting that God will bring the judgment they need to free them. They understand that God's judgment isn't something to be feared; it's something to be celebrated. It's something that will make the world right.
Christians who live in nations where they are oppressed understand that an underrated part of our Christian hope, is that we will someday have a very different relationship to the nations.
One day, the nations who despise us, will bow down to us, nose to the ground, and honor us. One day, they will work for us (Revelation 21:24-26), and not against us. They will bring us their wealth. One day, we will build, and be built up, without worrying about destroyers. On the day Jesus returns, we will be exalted (Daniel 7:18, 26-27).
All of that is part of hope in Jesus. And no matter how the world looks right now, God encourages us to just trust that He is able, and willing, and his rescue will come. It might come sooner, in this age. It come later, in the age to come. But it will come.
Translation:
(14) and Zion (feminine singular) said,
"He has abandoned/forsaken me-- Yahweh, ["He has abandoned me" is focused; Isaiah 54:6, 7; 60:15; 62:4; 62:12],
while the Lord has forgotten me."
(15) Can a woman/wife forget her infant/suckling,
[forget] to love (same word as verse 10) the child of her womb?
Although these may forget,
I will not forget you (feminine singular).
(16) LOOK! Upon the hands I have engraved [Ezekiel 4:1; Isaiah 30:8] you;
your walls [are] in front of me continually.
(17) They hurry (qatal)-- your builders;
the ones tearing you down and the ones laying waste to you-- from you they will depart.
(18) Lift up your eyes all around,
and see:
all of them have gathered. [Isaiah 40:11; 43:5; 54:7; 56:8; 60:4]
They have come to you.
As I live-- utterance of Yahweh-- surely ("ki") all of them, like beautiful jewelry, you will dress yourself with, [Isaiah 61:10; Jeremiah 2:32]
and you will fasten them to yourself like the bride.
(19) Surely ("ki"), your ruins and your desolations and your devastated land-- [Isaiah 6:11-12]
surely ("ki") now you will be cramped from inhabitants/dwellers,
and they will be far off-- the ones swallowing you.
(20) Still yet they will say in your ears, the sons of your bereavement (=the sons you've painfully lost),
"Too cramped for me, the place is," ["Too cramped for me" is focused]
Make room for me, [2 Kings 6:1]
that I may dwell.
(21) and you will say in your heart/mind,
"Who begot/birthed for me these ones, [contrast Isaiah 47:8-9]
while I was bereaved (v. 20) and barren, exiled and turned away,
while these ones-- who raised [them]?
LOOK! I was left all alone!
These ones-- from where [are] they?
(22) Thus has said the Lord Yahweh:
"LOOK! I will lift up to the nations my hand,
while to the peoples, I will raise my banner, [Isaiah 11:12; 13:2]
and they will bring your sons in [their] arms,
while your daughters, upon the shoulders, they will be carried, [Isaiah 66:12]
(23) and kings will be the ones nurturing (Esther 2:7) you,
while their queens, your wet-nurses.
With noses to the ground, they will bow down to you,
while the dust of your feet they will lick up, [contrast Isaiah 47:1]
that you may know that I [am] Yahweh,
when the ones waiting on me aren't ashamed.
(24) Can it be taken from a warrior-- loot?,
or the captive of a tyrant -- can he be rescued?
(25) But thus has said Yahweh:
"What's more, the captive of a warrior will be taken,
while the loot of a tyrant will be rescued,
while with your opponents, I -- I will show hostility,
while your sons I-- I will save,
(26) and I will cause the ones oppressing you to eat their [own] flesh,
while like the wine, their blood will be drunk,
and/that all flesh (=people) will know that I [am] Yahweh, The One saving you,
and The One redeeming you,
The Mighty One of Jacob.
(50:1) Thus has said Yahweh:
"Where [is] this: [the] book/document of the divorce of your mother,
when I sent her away?,
or who is my lender,
whom I sold you to him?
LOOK! Because of your sin/guilt you were sold,
and because of your rebellions your mother was sent away.
(2) Why did I come,
and there was no one?
[Why] did I call,
and there was no one answering?
Is my hand actually too shortened for redemption,
or isn't there within me strength to deliver?
LOOK! By my rebuke I dry up the sea.
I make rivers a desert/wilderness.
They stink-- their fish-- because there are no waters,
and they die because of the thirst.
(3) I clothe the heavens with darkness,
while sackcloth, I make their covering.