Bible Gateway passage: Isaiah 49 - New King James Version (2024)

The Servant, the Light to the Gentiles

49“Listen, ^(A)O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
^(B)The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the ^[a]matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
²And He has made ^(C)My mouth like a sharp sword;
^(D)In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me ^(E)a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”

³“And He said to me,
^(F)‘You are My servant, O Israel,
^(G)In whom I will be glorified.’
^4(H)Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my ^[b]just reward is with the Lord,
And my ^[c]work with my God.’ ”

⁵“And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel ^(I)is ^[d]gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
⁶Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a ^(J)light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”

⁷Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, ^[e]their Holy One,
^(K)To Him ^[f]whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
^(L)“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”

⁸Thus says the Lord:

“In an ^(M)acceptable^[g] time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will ^[h]preserve You ^(N)and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate ^[i]heritages;
⁹That You may say ^(O)to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’

“They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
¹⁰They shall neither ^(P)hunger nor thirst,
^(Q)Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them ^(R)will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
^11(S)I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
¹²Surely ^(T)these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.”

^13(U)Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.

God Will Remember Zion

^14(V)But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”

¹⁵“Can^(W) a woman forget her nursing child,
^[j]And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
^(X)Yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶See, ^(Y)I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
¹⁷Your ^[k]sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
^18(Z)Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,” says the Lord,
“You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all ^(AA)as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

¹⁹“For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
^(AB)Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
^20(AC)The children you will have,
^(AD)After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
²¹Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?’ ”

^22(AE)Thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
And set up My ^[l]standard for the peoples;
They shall bring your sons in their ^[m]arms,
And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
^23(AF)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
And their queens your nursing mothers;
They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
And ^(AG)lick up the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord,
^(AH)For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”

^24(AI)Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
Or the captives ^[n]of the righteous be delivered?

²⁵But thus says the Lord:

“Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
For I will contend with him who contends with you,
And I will save your children.
²⁶I will ^(AJ)feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
And they shall be drunk with their own ^(AK)blood as with sweet wine.
All flesh ^(AL)shall know
That I, the Lord, am your Savior,
And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”