Isaiah 49

The Servant of the  Lord

Listen to me, a O coastlands,
and give attention, you peoples b from afar.
c The  Lord called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
d He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
e in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel f in whom I will be glorified.”
Or  I will display my beauty

h But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the  Lord,
and my recompense with my God.”
i And now the  Lord says,
he j who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for k I am honored in the eyes of the  Lord,
and my God has become my strength
he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
l I will make you m as a light for the nations,
that n my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Thus says the  Lord,
o the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
p to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
the servant of rulers:
q Kings shall see and arise;
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the  Lord, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

The Restoration of Israel

Thus says the  Lord:
r “In a s time of favor I have answered you;
in a day of salvation I have helped you;
I will keep you t and give you
as a covenant to the people,
to establish the land,
u to apportion the desolate heritages,
v saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’
w They shall feed along the ways;
on all bare heights shall be their pasture;
10  x they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,
for he who has pity on them y will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
11  z And I will make all my mountains a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
12  aa Behold, these shall come from afar,
and behold ab these from the north and from the west
Hebrew  from the sea

and these from the land of Syene.”
Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text Sinim

13  ae Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the  Lord af has comforted his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14  But Zion said, ag “The  Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
15  ah “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16 Behold ai I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
17 Your builders make haste;
Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text  Your children make haste

ak your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
18  al Lift up your eyes around and see;
they all gather, they come to you.
am As I live, declares the  Lord,
an you shall put them all on as an ornament;
you shall bind them on as a bride does.
19  Surely your waste and your desolate places
and your devastated land
ao surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20  ap The children of your bereavement
will yet say in your ears:
aq ‘The place is too narrow for me;
make room for me to dwell in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart:
Who has borne me these?
ar I was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away,
but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
from where have these come?’”
22  Thus says the Lord  God:
Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
as and raise my signal to the peoples;
at and they shall bring your sons in their arms,
Hebrew  in their bosom

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23  av Kings shall be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
aw With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
and ax lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the  Lord;
ay those who wait for me az shall not be put to shame.”
24  Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
or the captives of a tyrant
Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac, Vulgate (see also verse 25); Masoretic Text  of a righteous man
be rescued?
25 For thus says the  Lord:
bb Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children.
26  bc I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk bd with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that be I am the  Lord your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Copyright information for ESV