Bible Strands
Isaiah 49:20
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.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Zion regarding her future restoration, quoting a future dialogue where her restored children will speak directly to her in her hearing.
The words — צַר־ (tzar-) = it is cramped, and הַמָּקוֹם (ha.ma.Kom) = the place. The text states the location is physically inadequate for the returning population.
The thread — Joshua 17:14 records the sons of Joseph complaining that their allotted territory is too small for their numbers. 2 Kings 6:1 notes the sons of the prophets telling Elisha that their gathering place is too small. Isaiah 51:3 shows God promising to transform Zion's ruins into a habitable expanse.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine reversal turns desolation into overwhelming abundance, making former boundaries obsolete.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Joshua 17:14 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.”
- 2 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.
- Isaiah 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.
- Isaiah 54:1 “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.
- Isaiah 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.
- Hosea 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.’
- Matthew 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.
- Galatians 4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.