ISV(i)
13 Shout with joy, you heavens, and rock with glee, you earth! Break out in song, you mountains! The LORD is comforting his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
14Zion Not Forgotten“But Zion said, ‘The LORD has abandoned me, and my God has forgotten me.’
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or have no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these mothers may forget; But as for me, I’ll never forget you!
16 Look! I’ve inscribed you on the palms of my hands, and your walls are forever before me.
17 Your builders are working faster than your destroyers, and those who devastated you go away from you.
18 Lift up your eyes and look around— they have all gathered together and are coming to you. “As surely as I live,” says the LORD, “you will clothe yourself with all of them like ornaments, and tie them on like a bride.
19 Indeed, your ruins, your desolate places, and your devastated land will now be too crowded for your inhabitants, while those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 “The children who are grieving at present will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too crowded for me; make room for me, so I may have a place to live.’
21 Then you’ll ask in your heart, ‘Who bore these children for me, although I was childless and barren, and an exile and cast aside? Who brought these up? Look! For my part I was left all alone; but as for these, where have they come from?’
22 “For this what the LORD says, ‘Watch! I’ll lift up my hand to the nations and raise my banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.’
23 “Oh, yes! Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens will be your nursing mothers. They will bow to you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust from your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.
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