Zion will Welcome Back Her People

Isaiah 49:13, 17–23

Biblical Period

13Shout, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth!
Break into shouting, O hills!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And has taken back His afflicted ones in love. [ . . . ]
17Swiftly your children are coming;
Those who ravaged and ruined you shall leave you.
18Look up all around you and see:
They are all assembled, are come to you!
As I live
—declares the Lord—
You shall don them all like jewels,
Deck yourself with them like a bride.
19As for your ruins and desolate places
And your land laid waste—
You shall soon be crowded with settlers,
While destroyers stay far from you.
20The children you thought you had lost
Shall yet say in your hearing,
“The place is too crowded for me;
Make room for me to settle.”
21And you will say to yourself,
“Who bore these for me
When I was bereaved and barren,
Exiled and disdained—
By whom, then, were these reared?
I was left all alone—
And where have these been?”
22Thus said the Lord God:
I will raise My hand to nations
And lift up My ensign to peoples;
And they shall bring your sons in their bosoms,
And carry your daughters on their backs.
23Kings shall tend your children,
Their queens shall serve you as nurses.
They shall bow to you, face to the ground,
And lick the dust of your feet.
And you shall know that I am the Lord—
Those who trust in Me shall not be shamed.

Credits

Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

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