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Isaiah 49
New King James Version

### 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.
2 And 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),
6 Indeed 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.’ ”

7 Thus 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.”

8 Thus 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;
9 That 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.
10 They 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.
12 Surely (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.
16 See, (Y)I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
17 Your [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.’
21 Then 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?

25 But 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.
26 I 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.”

#### Footnotes

1. Isaiah 49:1 Lit. inward parts
2. Isaiah 49:4 justice
3. Isaiah 49:4 recompense
4. Isaiah 49:5 Qr., DSS, LXX gathered to Him; Kt. not gathered
5. Isaiah 49:7 Lit. his or its
6. Isaiah 49:7 Lit. who is despised of soul
7. Isaiah 49:8 favorable
8. Isaiah 49:8 keep
9. Isaiah 49:8 inheritances
10. Isaiah 49:15 Lit. From having compassion
11. Isaiah 49:17 DSS, LXX, Tg., Vg. builders
12. Isaiah 49:22 banner
13. Isaiah 49:22 Lit. bosom
14. Isaiah 49:24 So with MT, Tg.; DSS, Syr., Vg. of the mighty; LXX unjustly

#### Cross references

1. Isaiah 49:1 : Is. 41:1
2. Isaiah 49:1 : Jer. 1:5; Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35; John 1:14; 10:36
3. Isaiah 49:2 : Is. 11:4; Hos. 6:5; [Heb. 4:12]; Rev. 1:16; 2:12
4. Isaiah 49:2 : Is. 51:16
5. Isaiah 49:2 : Ps. 45:5
6. Isaiah 49:3 : [Is. 41:8; 42:1; Zech. 3:8]
7. Isaiah 49:3 : Is. 44:23; Matt. 12:18; [John 13:31, 32; 14:13; 15:8; 17:4; Eph. 1:6]
8. Isaiah 49:4 : [Ezek. 3:19]
9. Isaiah 49:5 : Matt. 23:37; [Rom. 11:25–29]
10. Isaiah 49:6 : Is. 42:6; 51:4; [Luke 2:32]; Acts 13:47; [Gal. 3:14]
11. Isaiah 49:7 : [Ps. 22:6; Is. 53:3; Matt. 26:67; 27:41]; Mark 15:29; Luke 23:35
12. Isaiah 49:7 : [Is. 52:15]
13. Isaiah 49:8 : Ps. 69:13; 2 Cor. 6:2
14. Isaiah 49:8 : Is. 42:6
15. Isaiah 49:9 : Is. 61:1; Zech. 9:12; Luke 4:18
16. Isaiah 49:10 : Is. 33:16; 48:21; Rev. 7:16
17. Isaiah 49:10 : Ps. 121:6
18. Isaiah 49:10 : Ps. 23:2; Is. 40:11; 48:17
19. Isaiah 49:11 : Is. 40:4
20. Isaiah 49:12 : Is. 43:5, 6
21. Isaiah 49:13 : Is. 44:23
22. Isaiah 49:14 : Is. 40:27
23. Isaiah 49:15 : Ps. 103:13; Mal. 3:17
24. Isaiah 49:15 : Rom. 11:29
25. Isaiah 49:16 : Ex. 13:9; Song 8:6; Hag. 2:23
26. Isaiah 49:18 : Is. 60:4; John 4:35
27. Isaiah 49:18 : Prov. 17:6
28. Isaiah 49:19 : Is. 54:1, 2; Zech. 10:10
29. Isaiah 49:20 : Is. 60:4
30. Isaiah 49:20 : [Matt. 3:9; Rom. 11:11]
31. Isaiah 49:22 : Is. 60:4
32. Isaiah 49:23 : Ps. 72:11; Is. 52:15
33. Isaiah 49:23 : Ps. 72:9; Mic. 7:17
34. Isaiah 49:23 : Ps. 34:22; [Rom. 5:5]
35. Isaiah 49:24 : Matt. 12:29; Luke 11:21, 22
36. Isaiah 49:26 : Is. 9:20
37. Isaiah 49:26 : Rev. 14:20
38. Isaiah 49:26 : Ps. 9:16; Is. 60:16

New King James Version (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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