Isaiah 49:21

Then you will think to yourselves [MTY], ‘It is amazing that we have [RHQ] all these children! Most of our children were dead, and the rest were exiled. We were left here alone; so we do not know [RHQ] where all these children have come from! Who raised them?'”

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

In Context

20The children who were born while you were ◄exiled/in Babylonia► [MET] will return to Jerusalem and say, ‘This city is too small for us; We need more space to live in!’

22This is what Yahweh our God says: “Watch! It is as though I will lift up my hand to signal to those who are not Israelis. And they will carry your little sons and daughters on their shoulders and bring them back to you.

Read all of Isaiah 49

Cross References

Isaiah 1:8The city of Jerusalem has already been abandoned, it is like [SIM] a shelter in a vineyard that has been abandoned by the watchmen; it is like [SIM] a watchman’s hut in a field of melons that has been deserted. It is a city surrounded by its enemies who are waiting to attack it.

Isaiah 5:13So, my people will be ◄exiled/taken to other countries► far away because they do not know about me. Those who are now very important and honored will starve, and the other people will die from thirst.

Isaiah 52:2People of Jerusalem, get up from humbly sitting in the dust and sit in places where people are honored! You people who have returned from being exiled, take off from your neck the chains which were fastened around you as slaves in Babylonia,

Isaiah 60:15Previously everyone hated you and ignored you, but now your city will be majestic/honored forever; and I will cause you to be joyful forever.

Isaiah 64:10All of your towns in Judah have become like [MET] deserts; even Jerusalem has been destroyed.

Lamentations 1:1Jerusalem was once full of people, but now it is deserted. Once it was honored by people all over the world, but now it is grieving/abandoned like [SIM] a widow. Once it was honored like [MET] a princess is honored among the nations, but now we who live here have become slaves.

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 49:19-24

Encouragement to Zion. ( b. c. 706.) 18 Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord , thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. 19 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. 20 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Isaiah 49:21