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Isaiah 49

God answers the servant’s seeming failure and Zion’s sense of abandonment with promises of worldwide salvation, restoration, and judgment.

The servant calls distant peoples to listen, recounting God’s call from the womb and confessing that his labor has seemed wasted. God appoints him to restore Israel and carry salvation to the nations. The servant is named Israel, yet also sent to gather Israel, leaving his identity a question within the passage. Then Zion speaks as an abandoned mother. God answers with promises of remembered love, returning children, and rescue from captors, ending with fierce judgment against her oppressors.

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1Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: the LORD has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name.
2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver.
3He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with the LORD, and my reward with my God.”
5Now the LORD, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, says to bring Jacob again to him, and to gather Israel to him, for I am honorable in the LORD’s eyes, and my God has become my strength.
6Indeed, he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.”
7The LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and rise up, princes, and they shall worship, because of the LORD who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8The LORD says, “I have answered you in an acceptable time. I have helped you in a day of salvation. I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage,
9saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’; to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’ “They shall feed along the paths, and their pasture shall be on all treeless heights.
10They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them, for he who has mercy on them will lead them. He will guide them by springs of water.
11I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted.
12Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim.”
13Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth! Break out into singing, mountains! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.
15“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!
16Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me.
17Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you.
18Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live,” says the LORD, “you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride.
19“For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now that land will be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, ‘This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in.’
21Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?’”
22The Lord GOD says, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and lift up my banner to the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; and those who wait for me won’t be disappointed.”
24Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered?
25But the LORD says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder retrieved from the fierce, for I will contend with him who contends with you and I will save your children.
26I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 49:6The servant’s commission extends beyond gathering Israel: God appoints him to carry salvation to the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 49:23The reversal of Zion’s humiliation reaches foreign rulers, whose service will display God’s faithfulness to those who wait.
Isaiah 49:10God’s mercy takes the form of safe passage, food, and water for people released from captivity.
Where this chapter reaches

Luke shares the promise of light reaching the nations, connecting Jesus with the servant’s mission to bring God’s salvation beyond Israel. Revelation echoes the promise of freedom from hunger, thirst, and scorching heat, together with guidance to springs of water.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

Which part of God’s answer to Zion’s complaint is hardest for you to trust, and why?

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How does the servant’s confession of wasted strength shape your reading of his commission to the nations?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 49

Who is the servant in Isaiah 49?

The servant is called Israel in verse 3, yet is commissioned to restore Israel in verses 5–6. This suggests someone who represents Israel while carrying out a task for Israel. The chapter leaves that relationship unexplained. Christians understand this mission as fulfilled in Jesus Christ, whose saving work reaches the nations.

What does being engraved on God’s palms mean in Isaiah 49:16?

God answers Zion’s claim that she has been forgotten with an image of her engraved on his palms. Her ruined walls remain before him. The image expresses enduring remembrance and commitment to restore Jerusalem. The surrounding verses speak of returning children and a devastated land becoming crowded with inhabitants.

Why is Isaiah 49:26 so violent?

The closing verse portrays judgment against Zion’s oppressors through shocking images of consuming their own flesh and blood. It follows the question of whether captives can escape the mighty. God declares that he will overthrow those who hold his people. The language depicts their ruin without explaining its precise form.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).