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Isaiah 49:19-21
Contemporary English Version
Isaiah 49:19-21
Contemporary English Version
Jerusalem's Bright Future
19 Jerusalem is now in ruins!
Nothing is left of the city.
But it will be rebuilt
and soon overcrowded;
its cruel enemies
will be gone far away.
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?”
Footnotes
- 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.
Isaiah 49:19-21
New International Version
Isaiah 49:19-21
New International Version
19 “Though you were ruined and made desolate(A)
and your land laid waste,(B)
now you will be too small for your people,(C)
and those who devoured(D) you will be far away.
20 The children born during your bereavement
will yet say in your hearing,
‘This place is too small for us;
give us more space to live in.’(E)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who bore me these?(F)
I was bereaved(G) and barren;
I was exiled and rejected.(H)
Who brought these(I) up?
I was left(J) all alone,(K)
but these—where have they come from?’”
Contemporary English Version (CEV) 
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New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.