17 Your children hasten back,
    and those who laid you waste(A) depart from you.
18 Lift up your eyes and look around;
    all your children gather(B) and come to you.
As surely as I live,(C)” declares the Lord,
    “you will wear(D) them all as ornaments;
    you will put them on, like a bride.

19 “Though you were ruined and made desolate(E)
    and your land laid waste,(F)
now you will be too small for your people,(G)
    and those who devoured(H) 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.’(I)
21 Then you will say in your heart,
    ‘Who bore me these?(J)
I was bereaved(K) and barren;
    I was exiled and rejected.(L)
    Who brought these(M) up?
I was left(N) all alone,(O)
    but these—where have they come from?’”

22 This is what the Sovereign Lord(P) says:

“See, I will beckon to the nations,
    I will lift up my banner(Q) to the peoples;
they will bring(R) your sons in their arms
    and carry your daughters on their hips.(S)
23 Kings(T) will be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.(U)
They will bow down(V) before you with their faces to the ground;
    they will lick the dust(W) at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;(X)
    those who hope(Y) in me will not be disappointed.(Z)

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18 “This is what the Lord says:

“‘I will restore the fortunes(A) of Jacob’s tents(B)
    and have compassion(C) on his dwellings;
the city will be rebuilt(D) on her ruins,
    and the palace will stand in its proper place.

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