Yahweh Remembers Zion

• 14 But[fn] Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me!”
• 15 Can a woman forget her suckling, refrain from having compassion on the child of her womb?
• Indeed, these may forget,
  • but[fn] I, I will not forget you!
  • 16 Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
  • 17 Your children hasten; your destroyers and those who laid you waste depart[fn] from you.
  • 18 Lift your eyes up all around and see; all of them gather; they come to you.
• As surely as I live ,[fn]
  • declares[fn] Yahweh,
• surely you shall put on all of them like an ornament,
  • and you shall bind them on like a bride.
• 19 Surely your sites of ruins and desolate places and land of ruins,[fn] surely now you will be too cramped for your[fn] inhabitants,[fn]
  • and those who engulfed you will be far away.
• 20 Yet the children born when you were bereaved[fn] will say in your hearing,[fn] “The place is too cramped for me;
  • make room[fn] for me so that I can dwell.”
• 21 Then[fn] you will say in your heart, “Who has borne me these?”
  • And, “I was bereaved and barren,
• exiled and thrust away;
  • so[fn] who raised these?
• Look at me! I was left alone;
  • where have these come from ?”[fn]
• 22 Thus says the Lord Yahweh:“Look! I will lift my hand up to the nations,
  • and I will raise my signal to the peoples,
• and they shall bring your sons in their bosom,
  • and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.[fn]
  • 23 And kings shall be your guardians ,[fn] and their queens your nurses.
• They shall bow down, faces[fn] to the ground, to you,
  • and they will lick up the dust of your feet.
• Then[fn] you will know that I am Yahweh;
  • those who await me shall not be ashamed.
  • 24 Can war-booty be taken from the mighty? or can a captive of a righteous[fn] person be rescued?
• 25 But thus says Yahweh:“Indeed a captive of the mighty shall be taken,
  • and the war-booty of the tyrant shall be rescued,
• for[fn] I myself will dispute with your opponent,
  • and I myself will save your children.
  • 26 And I will feed your oppressors their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their blood as with wine.
• Then[fn] all flesh shall know that I am Yahweh,
  • your savior and redeemer, the strong one of Jacob.”
• 50 Thus says Yahweh:“Where is this divorce document of your mother’s divorce, with which I dismissed her?
  • or to whom of my creditors did I sell you?
• Look! you were sold because of your sin,
  • and your mother was dismissed because of your transgressions.
  • 2 Why was there no man when I came, no one who answered when I called?
• Do I lack the strength to save ?[fn]
  • Or is there no power in me to deliver?
• Look! by my rebuke I dry up the sea;
  • I make[fn] the rivers a desert;
• their fish stink because there is no water,
  • and they[fn] die because of thirst.
  • 3 I clothe the heavens with darkness, and I make[fn] their covering sackcloth.”