Study Desk

But Zion said, "The LORD has abandoned me, And the Lord has forgotten me."

But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

"Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

"Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators Will leave you.

Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.

"Raise your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live," declares the LORD, "You will certainly put them all on as jewelry and bind them on as a bride.

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.

"For your ruins and deserted places and your destroyed land— Now you will certainly be too cramped for the inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be far away.

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.

"The children you lost will yet say in your ears, 'The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.'

The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

"Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has fathered these for me, Since I have been bereaved of my children And cannot conceive, and I am an exile, and a wanderer? And who has raised these? Behold, I was left alone; Where are these from?'"

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?