Isaiah 49:21

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?’”

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The text addresses a personified Zion who will speak internally after experiencing exile and rejection, immediately following her bereaved children's complaint about overcrowding (Isaiah 49:20). This occurs at the moment of national restoration when exiled descendants return.

The words — The phrase וְ/אָמַ֣רְתְּ (ve./'a.Mart) literally means "and you will say," while שְׁכוּלָ֖ה (she.khu.Lah) translates to "bereaved." The verb יָֽלַד (ya.lad) denotes "did he father" or "begot."

The thread — The motif of desolation appears in Isaiah 1:8, where Zion is abandoned like a vine shelter, and Isaiah 3:26, where Zion's gates mourn as she sits destitute on the ground. Isaiah 5:13 links this state to exile caused by a lack of understanding.

Why it lands — The text asks a reader to recognize that the verse demands a reader to acknowledge that the text states a literal sequence of events before any theological inference about God's provision. The passage requires the reader to confront the reality of loss and the subsequent mystery of restoration without assuming immediate comfort.

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

Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

Cross-references

Isaiah 1:8 And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.
Isaiah 3:26 And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
Isaiah 5:13 Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
Isaiah 51:17 Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury; you who have drained the goblet to the dregs—the cup that makes men stagger.
Isaiah 52:2 Shake off your dust! Rise up and sit on your throne, O Jerusalem. Remove the chains from your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.
Isaiah 54:3 For you will spread out to the right and left; your descendants will dispossess the nations and inhabit the desolate cities.
Isaiah 60:15 Whereas you have been forsaken and despised, with no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from age to age.
Isaiah 62:4 No longer will you be called Forsaken, nor your land named Desolate; but you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be His bride.
Isaiah 64:10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.
Jeremiah 31:15 This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”