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20 Jerusalem is a woman
    whose children were born
while she was in deep sorrow[a]
    over the loss of her husband.
Now those children
will come and seek room
    in the crowded city,
21 and Jerusalem will ask,
    “Am I really their mother?
How could I have given birth
when I was still mourning
    in a foreign land?
Who raised these children?
Where have they come from?”

22 (A) The Lord God says:
“I will soon give a signal
    for the nations
to return your sons
and your daughters
    to the arms of Jerusalem.

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Footnotes

  1. 49.20 whose children … sorrow: These “children” are Jews who were born in foreign countries during the time that Jerusalem was in ruins. Jerusalem probably stands for all the cities in Judah that were destroyed by the Babylonians.

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