Isaiah 49
49
Isaiah 49
The Servant’s Mission
1 #
Isa 7.14; 9.6; 42.4; 44.2, 24; 66.19; Mt 1.20; Gal 1.15 Listen to me, O coastlands;
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The LORD called me before I was born;
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
2 #
Isa 11.4; 51.16; Hab 3.11; Heb 4.12 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 #
Isa 42.1; 44.23 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 #
Isa 65.23
But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the LORD
and my reward with my God.”
5 #
Isa 12.2; 27.12; 43.4; 44.2, 23 And now the LORD says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the LORD,
and my God has become my strength—
6 #
Isa 42.6; Lk 2.32; Acts 13.47; 26.23 he says,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7 #
Ps 22.6–8; Isa 48.17; 52.15; 53.3; 66.23 Thus says the LORD,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers,
“Kings shall see and stand up;
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
Zion’s Children to Be Brought Home
8 #
Ps 69.13; Isa 42.6; 44.26; 2 Cor 6.2 Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favor I have answered you;
on a day of salvation I have helped you;
I have kept you and given you
as a covenant to the people,#49.8 Meaning of Heb uncertain
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages,
9 #
Isa 41.18; 42.7; Lk 4.18 saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall feed along the ways;
on all the bare heights#49.9 Or the trails shall be their pasture;
10 #
Ps 121.6; Isa 14.1; 40.11; 41.17; Rev 7.16 they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them
and by springs of water will guide them.
11 #
Isa 40.4; 62.10 And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
12 #
Isa 43.5, 6 Look, some shall come from far away,
some from the north and from the west,
and some from the land of Syene.#49.12 Q ms: MT Sinim
13 #
Isa 40.1; 44.23; 54.7, 8, 10; Rev 12.12; 18.20 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the LORD has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his suffering ones.
14 #
Isa 40.27
But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 #
Isa 44.21
Can a woman forget her nursing child
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these might forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16 #
Song 8.6; Isa 62.6, 7 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
17 #
v 19
Your builders outdo your destroyers,#49.17 Or Your children come swiftly; your destroyers
and those who laid you waste go away from you.
18 #
Isa 43.5; 45.23; 52.1; 60.4 Lift up your eyes all around and see;
they all gather; they come to you.
As I live, says the LORD,
you shall put all of them on like an ornament,
and like a bride you shall bind them on.
19 #
Ps 56.1, 2; Isa 51.3; 54.1, 2; Zech 10.10 For your wastelands, your desolate places,
and your devastated land—
now you will be too crowded for your inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 #
Isa 54.1–3
The children born in the time of your bereavement
will yet say in your hearing:
“The place is too crowded for me;
make room for me to settle.”
21 #
Isa 1.8; 5.13; 27.10; 54.6, 7 Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has borne me these?
I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away—
so who has reared these?
I was left all alone—
where, then, have these come from?”
22 #
Isa 60.4; 62.10; 66.20 Thus says the Lord GOD:
I will soon lift up my hand to the nations
and raise my signal to the peoples,
and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23 #
Ps 25.3; 72.9; Isa 25.9; 43.10; 45.14; 60.16; Mic 7.17 Kings shall be your foster fathers
and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you
and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the LORD;
those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.
24Can the prey be taken from the mighty
or the captives of a tyrant#49.24 Q ms Syr Vg: MT of a righteous person be rescued?
25 #
Isa 14.1, 2; 25.9 But thus says the LORD:
Even the captives of the mighty will be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children.
26 #
v 7
; Isa 9.4, 20; 43.3; 45.6I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that I am the LORD your Savior
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
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New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
