Isaiah 49:21

And thou shalt say in thine heart, Who engendered these sons to me? I am barren, not bearing child; I am led over, and (a) prisoner; and who nourished these sons? I am destitute, and alone; and where were these? (And thou shalt say in thy heart, Who begat these children for me? for I am barren, and have not given birth to any children; yea, I am led over, and a prisoner; and who nourished these children? for I am destitute, and alone; where did they all come from?)

Wycliffe Modern Spelling

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

20Yet the sons of thy barrenness shall say in thine ears, The place is (too) strait to me, make thou a space to me for to dwell. (Yet the children born in thy barrenness shall say in thy ears, This place is too narrow for us, make thou a space for us to live in.)

22The Lord God saith these things, Lo! I raise mine hand to heathen men, and I shall enhance my sign to peoples, (or The Lord God saith these things, Behold! I shall raise up my hand to the heathen, and I shall exalt my sign to the peoples); and they shall bring thy sons in (their) arms, and they shall bear thy daughters on (their) shoulders.

Read all of Isaiah 49

Cross References

Isaiah 1:8And the daughter of Zion, that is, Jerusalem, shall be forsaken as a shadowing place in a vineyard, and as an hulk in a place where gourds waxed, and as a city which is wasted. (And the daughter of Zion, that is, Jerusalem, shall be deserted like a place of shadow in a vineyard, and like a hut in a place where cucumbers grew, and like a city that is destroyed.)

Isaiah 5:13Therefore my people is led captive, either prisoner, for it had not knowing; and the noblemen thereof perished in hunger, and the multitude thereof was dry in thirst. (And so my people be led away as prisoners, for they had no knowledge, or no understanding; and their noble people perished from hunger, and their multitude were dry with thirst.)

Isaiah 52:2Jerusalem, be thou shaken out of [the] dust; rise thou, (and) sit thou (down); thou daughter of Zion, (thou) prisoner, unbind the bonds of thy neck.

Isaiah 60:15For that that thou were forsaken, and hated, and none was that passed by thee, (yea, now) I shall set thee into pride, that is, (to the) glory and honour, of worlds, (to be a) joy in generation and into generation.

Isaiah 64:10The city of thy holy, either saintuary, is forsaken, Zion is made desert, Jerusalem is made desolate; (Thy holy cities be deserted, Zion is made a wilderness, Jerusalem is made desolate;)

Lamentations 1:1How sitteth alone the city (that once was so) full of people? the lady of folks is made as a widow; the princess of provinces is made under tribute. (How the city now sitteth alone, (or empty), that once was so full of people! the lady of nations is made like a widow; the princess of provinces is put under tribute or is made to suffer forced labour.)

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