Isaiah
Isaiah 49 ©
1 Christ complaineth of the unsuccessfulness of his mission to the Jews: 5 he is sent to the Gentiles with gracious promises. 13 God's love to his church is perpetual. 18 Its restoration and enlargement. 24 The certainty of its deliverance out of captivity.
aLISTEN, bO isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath ccalled me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
Then I said, hI have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: iyet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and 1my work with my God.
¶And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, jto bring Jacob again to him, k2Though Israel be not gathered, yet lshall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
And he said, 3It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the 4preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a mlight to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
nThus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, 5to him whom man despiseth, oto him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, pKings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.
Thus saith the LORD, qIn an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I rwill preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to 6establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
That sthou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. tThey shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
uThey shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for vhe that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by wthe springs of water shall he guide them.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, 7that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, cyet will I not forget thee.
¶gLift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As hI live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely iclothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth.
For jthy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and kthey that swallowed thee up shall be far away.
lThe children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too *strait for me: m*give place to me that I may dwell.
Thus saith the Lord GOD, pBehold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and qset up my *standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their 9arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
rAnd kings shall be thy 10nursing fathers, and their 11queens thy nursing mothers: they shall sbow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for tthey shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
But thus saith the LORD, vEven the 13captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the *prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with whim that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.
And xI will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with 14sweet wine: and all flesh yshall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and zthy Redeemer, athe mighty One of Jacob.