Isaiah 49:14-26

14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.

17 Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.

18 Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.

19 “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.

20 The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’

21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’ ”

22 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.

23 Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”

24 Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce^[a] ?

25 But this is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.

26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

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Isaiah 49:14-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 49

This is a prophecy concerning Christ, and redemption by him; and of the enlargement of the church in the latter day, by the conversion of Jews and Gentiles; which the isles, and people afar off, are exhorted to listen and hearken to, delivered out by the prophet, in the person of Christ; who gives an account of his call to his office, and the time of it; of what the Lord did for him, and said unto him, Isa 49:1-3, then follows a complaint of his labouring in vain, and a correction of it, Isa 49:4 and a further declaration of his call and appointment to office, and of each of the parts of the work assigned him, with encouragement to it, Isa 49:5,6. Christ is again represented under discouraging circumstances, as despised of men, abhorred by the nation, and a servant of rulers; who is encouraged by divine promises that kings should rise up before him, and worship him; that God would be faithful to his promise to him, and yet choose him, hear and help him, at a proper time; preserve him, and give him for a covenant to the people, to the establishment of the earth, and making it habitable, Isa 49:7,8 for the release of prisoners, and feeding, leading, and guiding them, and removing all difficulties out of the way, Isa 49:9-11 when the calling of the Gentiles is foretold, which would occasion great joy in the world, Isa 49:12,13 yet the church is introduced as complaining that she was forsaken of God, Isa 49:14 which is denied, and the contrary affirmed; being dear to the Lord as a sucking child to its mother, and more so; never forgotten by him, and always under his care, Isa 49:16, and, for her comfort, she is assured that those who had destroyed and made her waste should be removed; and that she should have converts that would be an ornament to her, and these numerous, insomuch that the place of their habitation would be too strait and narrow, and which would be matter of astonishment to her, Isa 49:17-21 and, besides those that would be converted in the land of Judea, there would be great numbers in the Gentile world converted by the power of God accompanying his Gospel, set up as a standard there, kings and queens countenancing and encouraging the interest of Christ, Isa 49:22,23 and yet still it is questioned whether the church should be delivered from her oppressors, Isa 49:24 to which it is answered, that she should be delivered, and her persecutors destroyed; by which it would be known that the Lord is the Redeemer and Saviour of his people, Isa 49:25,26.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 46

1. Isaiah 40:9
2. S Psalms 9:10; S Psalms 71:11; S Isaiah 27:8
3. S 1 Kings 3:26; Isaiah 66:13
4. S Isaiah 44:21
5. S Genesis 38:18; S Exodus 28:9; Song of Songs 8:6
6. Psalms 48:12-13; Isaiah 62:6
7. S Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 10:6; Isaiah 37:18
8. S Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 14:1; Isaiah 43:5; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 54:7; Isaiah 60:4
9. S Numbers 14:21; Isaiah 45:23; Isaiah 54:9; Isaiah 62:8; Romans 14:11*
10. Isaiah 52:1; Isaiah 61:10; Jeremiah 2:32
11. S Leviticus 26:33; Isaiah 54:1,3; Isaiah 60:18; Isaiah 62:4
12. S Isaiah 5:6
13. Ezekiel 36:10-11; Zechariah 10:10
14. S Isaiah 1:20
15. Isaiah 54:1-3; Zechariah 2:4; Zechariah 10:10
16. Isaiah 29:23; Isaiah 66:7-8
17. S Isaiah 47:8; Isaiah 54:1
18. Isaiah 5:13; Isaiah 54:6
19. Isaiah 60:8
20. S Isaiah 1:8
21. S Psalms 142:4; Isaiah 51:18; Jeremiah 10:20
22. S Genesis 15:2
23. S Isaiah 11:10
24. S Isaiah 11:12; S Isaiah 14:2
25. Luke 15:5; Isaiah 60:4
26. Isa 60:3,10-11
27. S Numbers 11:12; S Isaiah 60:16
28. S Genesis 27:29; Revelation 3:9
29. S Genesis 3:14; Psalms 72:9
30. S Exodus 6:2; S Ps 22:23; S Isaiah 42:8; Micah 7:17
31. S Psalms 37:9; S Psalms 130:5
32. S Psalms 22:5; S Isaiah 29:22; S Isaiah 41:11
33. Matthew 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 11:21
34. S Isaiah 14:2
35. Jeremiah 50:33-34; Mark 3:27
36. S Isaiah 13:11; S Isaiah 25:4
37. Isaiah 25:5; S Isaiah 43:26; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 50:34
38. S 1 Samuel 24:15
39. Isaiah 25:9; Isaiah 33:22; Isaiah 35:4
40. S Isaiah 9:4; S Isaiah 13:11
41. S Isaiah 9:20
42. Numbers 23:24; Jeremiah 25:27; Nahum 1:10; Nahum 3:11; Revelation 16:6
43. Exodus 6:7; S Isaiah 11:9; Ezekiel 39:7
44. S Isaiah 25:9
45. S Job 19:25; S Isaiah 48:17
46. S Genesis 49:24; S Psalms 132:2

Footnotes 1

[a]. Dead Sea Scrolls, Vulgate and Syriac (see also Septuagint and verse 25); Masoretic Text "righteous"