Isaiah 49:20
18 Lift up your eyes and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as jewelry and put them on like a bride.
19 For your ruined and desolate places and your ravaged land will now indeed be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
Yet the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; make room for us to live here.’
21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”
22 This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Yet the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; make room for us to live here.’
- KJV
- 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.
- WEB
- The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, ‘This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in.’
- ASV
- The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell.
- DARBY
- The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too narrow for me: make room for me, that I may dwell.
- BLB
- Again the sons of your childlessness will say in your ears: ‘The place [is] narrow for me! Make room for me that I may dwell!’
- ÅB
- Enda skal du få høre barna fra din barnløshets dager si: Plassen er for trang for meg; flytt deg, så jeg kan få bo her!
- OTB
- Barna som ble født under din sorg vil enda si i ditt nærvær, ‘Dette stedet er for trangt for oss; gi oss mer plass å bo på.’
- B1930
- Ennu skal du få høre barna fra din barnløshets dager si: Plassen er for trang for mig; flytt dig, så jeg kan få bo her!
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Joshua 17:14–16
Then the sons of Joseph said to Joshua, “Why have you given us only one portion as an inheritance? We have many people, because the LORD has blessed us abundantly.”
Read in contextGalatians 4:26–28
But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
Read in contextHosea 1:10
Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
Read in contextIsaiah 60:4
Lift up your eyes and look around: They all gather and come to you; your sons will come from afar, and your daughters will be carried on the arm.
Read in context2 Kings 6:1
Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Please take note that the place where we meet with you is too small for us.
Read in contextIsaiah 54:1–3
“Shout for joy, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth in song and cry aloud, you who have never travailed; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband,” says the LORD.
Read in contextMatthew 3:9
And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.
Read in contextIsaiah 51:3
For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.
Read in context